Every year April brings one of Cambodia’s biggest holidays, Songkran, aka the water splashing festival, which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the new (solar) year on the Buddhist and Hindu calendar. It’s a three day official holiday in Cambodia and most businesses shut down and many people go back to the provinces to celebrate. In years past the water splashing part has been pretty lowkey, especially compared to countries like Thailand, who go all out for Songkran, where it’s essentially a country-wide water fight. In Phnom Penh if you weren’t up north by Wat Phnom where they hold the festivities, you might notice some kids walking around with squirt guns and that’s about it. But in the last few years, perhaps a bit jealous of the notoriety the festival has gotten in Thailand, the government has decided to promote and expand the festival a bit more with streets roped off for pedestrians and food vendors, official parties, DJ sets, etc.
I decided to stay in a hotel up closer to where all the action is at this year. Suddenly every corner shop now has a wide selection of water guns out front. And baby powder - also part of the tradition, a less desirable one, where people slap your cheek with a handful of it. People from other parts of town started showing up in the streets in the late afternoon equipped with their arsenal of water guns. Tons of pickup trucks with a full load of people in the bed ply the streets looking for targets. I didn’t realize there were so many nice pick-up trucks in Phnom Penh! Store owners set up tables on their storefronts to hang out, drink beer, and spray people with hoses and their heavy duty spray guns - the type where the gun is connected by a hose to a large tub of water. If they feel like being particularly “playful” they fill the tubs of with bags of ice.
So the first afternoon was pretty fun, I bought a $5 gun and went around getting spraying and getting sprayed, no phone no camera etc, as it’s basically expected you’re gonna get soaked. It’s definitely a holiday for the young, teens and early twenties people everywhere. But really there’s only so much spraying and spraying back that I can partake in before the fun starts to wear off. And I will say that the Cambodians do particularly enjoy targeting the Barangs (Barang literally means French person, as they were the original colonizers, but now it just means any white person) as perhaps a form of socio-economic class revenge, as everyone is an equally fair target in Songkran. And what other time of year will you have to spray one of these absurdly rich, spoiled foreigners in the face with a water gun?! Which is all perfectly fine with me, but of course some teenage boys like to be particularly obnoxious with the direct face shots from 3 feet away. And then you’ve got the baby powder, most people will ask if they can slap some on your cheeks in a friendly playful manner, others (teenage boys) will not.
Anyway I still had a nice time going out for a bit in the afternoons. Sometimes I’d grab the camera for a bit and take some photos, which of course is always a bit risky, but most people were pretty nice about it and only gave me small squirts seeing that I had a big camera in tow. Going out for a jog was also pretty fun, the sprays were welcome, and you can be sure you’re not going to overheat!
Now what I did not realize is that the street I was staying on would be completely gridlocked with traffic every evening. All those pickup trucks completely clog up the whole area, so there’s no way for a ride-share to come pick you up to go anywhere, like a casino. Now I don’t mind getting soaked in the very hot afternoons, as I’m used to getting soaked (in sweat) basically every late afternoon at the gym or going for a run! But once I change clothes and need to get ‘to work’ that’s a different story. There was basically no way for me to get out of my hotel without walking a few blocks through the party zone. I’d put on my rainjacket and try to slink my way out through the crowds without being a target.
Proper etiquette is that if you’re a normally dressed person with no water gun, you’re not supposed to get sprayed, and they do give this respect to older Cambodians, but not so much for barangs! Which is to say, I almost never made it out without getting wet. There’s always some teenage boy out there who sees a no-fun foreigner trying not to get wet and has to take it upon themselves to remedy that situation. After multiple days of this, and showing up to the (already cold) casino wet, I’m not gonna lie, I was ready to beat someone’s ass. And it takes quite a bit to get me to that point!
So lesson learned, I will not be staying anywhere up by Wat Phnom during Songkran again. Better to walk or take a tuk tuk to where the action is at than be permanently stuck in the middle of it! Anwyway, here’s a few pics from the few blocks around my hotel.
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