Cambodian Water Festival and boat race

While volunteering with VSO I told another volunteer I would photograph the Water Festival boat race, because VSO had a crew paddling one of the long boats. Check this post for photographs of the practice session.

Last Saturday was the race, I went to the VSO office to take the group photo and to the start.

Then we piled into two vehicles and went to the start. This festival is definitely a draw in Phnom Penh, it was early and the crowd was already starting to grow. Each team has a colored t-shirts, with teams in their boats side-by-side the colors made an exciting photography.

The race is run on the Tonle Sap River, which is unique, it switches directions each year about this time. This year there was still a good current and luckily the boats were rowing with the current. There are three types of boats in the race; the boat VSO was racing was a long boat, with a crew of about 55 people. VSO had 36 foreigners, which is a rarity; I did not see any other foreigners as crew members. In fact I only saw a handful of foreign tourists.

The boats race in pairs, they pull onto the river in pairs,

Head for the start point at a slow pace, and when about 50 meters upstream from the start marker they accelerate.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the finish to see the VSO boat finish. When you want a moto, there is never one around.

Here are some boats that were really fighting for position at the end of the race.