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November 11, 2008
Tuk is a very useful word.
It is not surprising that Phnom Penh does not have an organized recycling service. What is interesting, however, is that residents are more likely to separate bottles and cans from their trash here than they are in Arizona. This is because the city has a small army of street urchins who scrape together a living by collecting empties and turning them in to some central location. If you don't separate your trash, they tear open your trashbags and leave your front gate strewn with refuse. It's a very cambodian answer to the problem, but it seems to work out okay. I mention this because the urchins are most visible after big public events, especially sporting events, because of the large number of empty bottles resulting from such events. After the boat races today (great visual: big long boats full of furiously paddling village representatives in color-coded hats and shirts), the oarsmen threw their empty water bottles to the couple of fearless urchins who dove into the water to get them. Granted, they didn't seem to be in too much trouble, considering that they were holding tightly onto highly buoyant bags of bottles that were almost as big as they were, but it was another strange scene on this, the first day of the Water Festival.
The Water Festival is held every year on the first full moon in November. It celebrates the changing of seasons (from rainy to dry), signified most spectacularly by the reversal of the Tonle Sap river. Half the year it acts like a normal river, running from the lake of the same name confluencing at Phnom Penh with the Mekong. But during the rainy season, the Mekong swells and forces the Tonle Sap to run backwards. This leads to dramatic variation in the size of the Tonle Sap lake, which some archaeologists believe was an important cause for the prosperity of Angkor: when the lake was low, the uncovered areas were perfect for growing rice.
The scene by the riverside is nigh-on insane: the city doubles in population, and almost all of that is concentrated by the river. Anywhere with a patch of green space was turned into a zone for open air concerts and/or product hawking. (I personally preferred the boot advertising the Thai Mr. Clean knockoff, Mr. Muscle) The ministry of tourism, in connection with its "Cambodia: Kingdom of Wonders" ad campaign (it aired on CNN), set up an 'international visitors only' area that I immediately dubbed "The Barang Pavilion." It felt pretty weird to step past the huddled masses into an exclusive area, but it was admittedly a nice break from the shoulder-to-shoulder (or in my case, shoulder-to-everyone-else's-head) crowding. Maybe because people were coming in from the hinterlands where giant white people are less common, I felt like much more of a curiosity than normal, given the comments, laughter, and attempts by random people to walk side by side with me to ascertain our relative heights.
Another cool part of the water festival is the salutation to the moon, as conducted via fireworks and brightly-lit barges depicting the seals of various government ministries. I used how impressive each ministry's float was as a gauge of its place in the pecking order. And, no surprise given current events, the Ministry of National Defense had a pimped out float, complete with nagas spouting blue light that almost looked like water (if you squinted) and a lit up 'mythical monkey of giant-killing' that is apparently the RCAF's totem animal. The Central Bank also had a cool float, with single-point perspective all leading towards a radiating Riel (the currency) symbol. Initially I was kind of skeptical, but I honestly think it would be pretty cool to see a gigantic barge towing a lit up representation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs down the Potomac.
I'm going to Battambang tomorrow, and probably from there to see the 'greatest hits' version of Angkor Wat, partly just to figure out the lay of the land before I go visit it more fully next time. Also, I'm not entirely sure if this is true, but I've heard that Battambang is named after a whupping stick (literally, the bat of Dahmbang) that some emperor could throw really far. I'll get you the scoop later.
Posted by flynn at November 11, 2008 9:04 PM
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Comments
You'd best have photos, comrade.
Posted by: sam at November 11, 2008 10:28 PM
Yeah, I second that comment! And if you don't start posting some photos somewhere, I swear I am going to join Facebook and friend you, regardless of the creepiness factor of moms doing social networking.
Posted by: Ann at November 13, 2008 3:49 AM
By the way, if the RCAF's totem animal is a "mythical monkey of giant killing," you -- and any other giants you may know -- best be cautious, for fear of being made part of some allegorical public monkey attack.
Yes, we're back to the "watch out for monkeys" theme ...
Posted by: Ann at November 14, 2008 12:51 AM
You didn't explain why 'tuk' is a very useful word.
Posted by: John at November 19, 2008 12:18 AM
Maybe it means enigmatic.
Posted by: Ann at November 19, 2008 9:41 AM
Tuk means water. It also, when given the right adjectives, can mean "sauce," "juice," or "drink." The sole exception is if something is alcoholic, in which case you use the all-purpose term "sra" which sort of means alcohol, and can be used for booze of any strength, from beer to palm wine to "sra vodca."
Posted by: Flynn at December 24, 2008 8:51 PM