Happy Khmer New Year!

For the third time in four months, preparations are underway to bring in a new year in Cambodia. International New Year is an excuse to party with the rest of the world and Chinese New Year has been adopted as an unofficial holiday. But Khmer New Year still stands apart as one of the major festivals in the calendar. Officially running from April 14 to 16, there’s plenty of fun to be found, but visitors should be prepared for busy roads, closed banks and increased interest in their personal belongings.

Khmer New Year celebrations begin with a rush to the countryside. Families pack their SUVs and shared minibuses full to bursting with tinselled presents, pagoda offerings and new clothes to return to their home province for three days of celebrations. On village roads, barricades are set up by groups of youngsters armed with water bombs and white powder. Passing motorbikes are drenched and dusted to howls of delight, before a small fine is demanded to allow passage. These 500 riel dues are spent on yet more ammunition, ensuring the fun continues all day.
 

Houses are given some glitz with tinsel decorations and fairy lights, with an offering table of banana leaves, candles and incense placed outside. Families gather to drink, eat and dance to unbelievably loud music. Special games, reserved for the holiday, get underway with teams of enthusiastic teenagers making the most of flirting opportunities. Bos Chhoung involves two teams singing a traditional song and throwing a balled scarf at their love interests. A cross between petanque and bowling, Bos Angkunh uses big fruit seeds as targets and ball, with the losers having their knees pounded by two seeds knocking together. The name for the seed in Khmer sounds like the word for ‘knee’ so it’s perfectly logical, as well as painful.

In Phnom Penh, your best chance of seeing and joining in these games is at the Vietnamese Friendship park opposite Wat Botom, or coming across a bunch of teenagers playing in the streets in the evening. For a village experience, arrange a trip to Kandal province (just across the Mekong river) with a motodop or tuk tuk, and remember to take plenty of small notes for the ‘tolls’ and prepare to get wet (and while you’re in Kandal — check out the pagodas). There’s usually fireworks near the riverside and those who haven’t escaped the city will be making parties of their own, spilling out into the streets.

While Khmer New Year is fun, it can also be frustrating for visitors. Banks, embassies and many businesses will be closed, so if you need to get a visa or make onward travel plans, you’ll need to think ahead. Tourist attractions such as museums also shut down, and there’s less choice of restaurants and bars than usual. Those that are open will usually have less staff, so a little patience may be required. Transport providers also go home for the holidays — expect to be asked for a little extra on the fare when you do find a tuk tuk driver who’s willing to work.

Finally, the run up to Khmer New Year has been dubbed ‘robbery season‘ as bag snatching and thefts increase. Take extra care and be vigilant, so you don’t start the New Year subsidising someone else’s party.

Susadai Chnam Thmei! (Happy New Year!)

Major Cambodian festivals: Pchum Ben and Water Festival

The United States celebrates 10, while England usually has eight. In the league table of public holidays, they are merely amateurs compared with Cambodia’s 28 days of legislated relaxation. Brits may have got a bonus day this year for their Queen holding down a job for a long time, but Cambodians celebrate the King’s coronation and birthday every year, and include days for the King Father and the King Mother.

Generally, public holidays don’t interfere much with visitors’ travel plans, other than the bonus of some riverside fireworks in Phnom Penh. But as the rains have their final tantrums before crying themselves out, two of the most important festivals in the Cambodian diary — Pchum Ben and Water Festival — may have an impact on tight schedules.
 

The Pchum Ben festival is observed for 15 days, culminating in three days of public holiday, this year October 14 to 16. The first 14 days involve food offerings to monks at pagodas, but the final day is the busiest, providing food for ancestors and financial contributions for the upkeep of wats. If you’re interested in religious life in Cambodia, this is a good opportunity to observe and respectfully participate.

Other than groups of women dressed in their pagoda best clutching flowers and dishes, it’s unlikely you’ll notice anything different at the beginning of this festival. Come the public holidays, however, banks and government departments will close, and many restaurants and guesthouses run with a reduced staff as workers return to their home provinces. Don’t be surprised if food choices are limited or what seem like easy requests cannot be fulfilled. The phrase “Cannot, Pchum Ben” is a catch-all phrase to explain delays with visa extensions, a lack of chicken dishes or the unavailability of your chosen beverage.
 

Phnom Penh can get so quiet during Pchum Ben that visitors have been seen wandering around with confused looks on their faces, unable to find a tuk tuk and wondering what all the fuss was about the traffic. Six weeks later, the capital gets full to bursting during the Water Festival (27-29 November) and you can’t move for excitable revellers discussing boat racing tactics. As last year’s festivities were cancelled due to disastrous flooding across much of the country, this year’s celebration is likely to be even more popular.

After each day of boat races, a flotilla of lighted boats floats serenely down riverside in the evenings and there’s a variety of concerts in public spaces. Areas of the city are closed to motor traffic, and the streets leading back from riverside can become very busy. It’s worth double checking the location of your guesthouse to ensure you won’t be hauling your backpack through crowds that even the noisiest tuk tuk horn can’t part.
 

Travelling around the country can be a little more challenging during both these festivals, as roads get busier and bus tickets are more sought after. If your itinerary doesn’t allow for an extra day here and there in case of unexpected delays, you may need to revise your plans. Many Khmers and expats living in Phnom Penh use the Water Festival as an excuse to exit the city. This holiday season is one time when it does pay to book ahead for accommodation, particularly at the beach and smaller towns with limited guesthouses. A couple of years ago during Water Festival, Sen Monorom was turning away visitors relying on scoring a bed on arrival, and yours truly allegedly got the last room in town.

If those holidays aren’t enough for you, three individual holidays fall between Pchum Ben and Water Festival: a double whammy of royal birthdays on 29 October (for the King) and 31 October (for the King Father) and Independence Day on 9 November. The perfect excuse to grab a rooftop cocktail or hire a boat and enjoy some fireworks in comfort.