Hallow-wan and the Henley Regatta

Cambodians are terrified of Ghosts! They believe adamantly that they exist and they are scared of them, (one of the other volunteers Zac has a theory that is the reason so many babies cry when they see me – I’m so pale they think I’m a Ghost). Due to this phobia we wondered whether to celebrate Halloween. Hannah and I decided to go American style and dress up as anything rather than spooky things. We had a chat with the restaurant where we ate breakfast every day and they were more than happy to let us decorate a table for our ‘happy, happy day’. Nathan who works at the restaurant and speaks perfect English made us pumpkins with twigs for hair and put lights inside. We made orange paper chains and Nathan hung them all around the restaurant. Everyone dressed up and Garry won the prize for best fancy dress – he went as a pirate and looked great. All the Khmer people who work in the restaurant were totally bemused but got in the spirit and the night ended with Khmer dancing and costume swapping.

So if you are ever in Kampong Cham in Cambodia go to Joe’s Restaurant on the riverfront and scan the walls for pictures of ‘Hallow-wan’ – you might just see me there!

Another event close to Hallow-wan was the water festival. This is probably now on most people’s radar due to the tragic stampede that happened this year. Before the main festival in Phnom Penh each province has qualifying boat races to see who will compete in the main event. Therefore one Sunday afternoon off we went to find a spot to sit and watch the heats. This spot turned out to be a rather high wall that I wouldn’t have managed to negotiate without help from the boys.

Each boat has around 40 people in it all wearing the same colour shirts. I was betting on the green boat, someone else had ‘the Thompson’s Holiday Reps’ (their shirts wouldn’t have been out of place on a resort on the Med) and someone else had ‘the pub team’ (they didn’t have matching shirts). All in all if I’d had a glass of Pimms and a cucumber sandwich I could have been at the Henley Regatta.