Only a week late, but we have managed to catch some fireworks. We’re back in Phnom Penh after a brief trip down to the South Coast. This week is the water festival, as well as being Independence Day, and a Full Moon. So it’s all happening in Phnom Penh.
The Bon Om Thook water festival celebrates the changing direction of the Tonle Sap River at the end of the wet season. Don’t ask me how that works, but they have a big party anyway. As a well as a boat race with teams from each different province, big illumated floats going up and down the river at night a bit like a Disney Parade, and a big firework display.
As we passed the halfway point on the ”Small Tour” of Angkor Wat, I asked our Tuk-Tuk driver what time it was. He looked at his watch, spent a few seconds translating into English, and informed me it was 12:40. For a moment I was relieved he could speak English, otherwise we wouldn’t have had a clue what time it was. Until I realised I could just have looked at his watch myself. In that case then, thank goodness he and his country tell the time in the same way as me, otherwise we’d be really stuck!
What if it was like currency exchange? Everyone measures money in different ways so it’s pretty lucky we all ended up measuring time in the same way.
“Ëxcuse me, how long does it take to get to the airport?”
“About 2000 bajodas, depending on traffic.”
“George, how much is 2000 bajodas in hours?”
“Öh don’t worry dear that’s only about eleven and a half minutes.”