MAKING A SPLASH

The Capital Transforms for the Annual Water Festival

At this very moment, Phnom Penh is a markedly different city than it was one week ago, before preparations began for this year?s Water Festival. Beggars have been hauled to social affairs centers, prostitutes forced back a street or two and the street vendors chased from the riverfront
But scratch the surface a little?not hard mind you?and the capital remains as coarse and raw as ever.

Though why nick such a painstakingly applied veneer?

For weeks now, thousands of workers and officials, athletes and vendors, civil servants and volunteers have been scrambling to turn the city into a jewel of sorts worthy of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will heave in for the three days of annual boat races.

In the days leading up to Sunday?s start, gardeners inched along the riverfront, tamping down mounds of dirt and installing plants; tying off the landscaped patches with pink string. Plumbers hooked up 400 toilets, and the curbs got a coat of white paint.

The Ministry of Health prepped its half-mil-lion anti-disease fliers. Population Services International readied a quarter-million condoms. Hundreds of temporary street cleaners found out which shift on the near round-the-clock garbage pickup they?d serve.

And up and down the river, teammates came together, many for the first time in nearly a year, and raced. They lugged leaky boats into the water. They donned t-shirts embossed with sponsors? names?7NG, Ji-Tan Concrete. Trainers screamed and oars pounded the surface and all along the bank, long before the festival officially kicked off, people watched.

The the pure joy of this spectating brought many to the city; for others, there is the money.

On the gritty, less-manicured east side of the Tonle Sap river, this was the week before: Ferris wheels popped up, and food stalls unfolded past dirt ruts stretching riverward. Monks and racers bounded off trucks carrying them to town. Kids were going wild with excitement and wide-eyed province boys gaped at the big city.

Beneath a tarp stretched over newly installed stakes was a rundown motorcycle stacked with one week's worth of living supplies and 37-year-old Sok Sopheak, fresh from Kandal province. Almost every year he comes here to sell noodles and porridge at the festival. Sometimes, not always, he breaks even?earning more than the outrageously priced $70 rent for his small plot during the five-day lead-up and three-day festival.

Mr Sopheak was worlds apart from the swaggering racers who splashed up the riverbank, shouting and joking, bragging of their prowess. In matching caps and gym shorts, pouring from boats so pencil-thin they looked like they were in danger of snapping, even the men?s complaints were boasts.
The 22-man Dangkao district boat had been taking on water all morning. Lifejackets would admittedly be lovely, but not to worry, they could all swim. Ditto for the Banteay Meanchey-sponsored team. Water cannot sink them, nor disease.

?I educate the men about HIV/AIDS before we come,? said the Banteay Meanchey team leader, throwing his men into hysterics.

By the end of the festival, more than 20,000 of these boat-rowing immortals will have sped along the Tonle Sap river. For the two million or so who will trek to Phnom Penh to watch them, there will be 391 boats to cheer by day and nine lantern ships to gawk at by night. And during the festival, the throngs will surge along the riverfront, the municipal gardens will be trampled?again?purses and wallets will be stolen and fights had.

And despite the meticulous installation of toilets and months-long campaigns against drunken driving and the hundreds of volunteers distributing condoms, there will be men relieving themselves against walls, traffic accidents and risky behavior in the city?s massage parlors and brothels.

But it doesn?t matter much, because for these three glory-filled days of festival and boat races, the sun will beat down, the river will flow and Cambodia?s proud boaters will race and race.

Sourced = The Cambodia Daily