Tuesday I finally was able to drag myself down to the Water Festival. The Water Festival is the biggest yearly celebration in Cambodia. It marks the changing of the flow of the Tonle Sap river. The Tonle Sap, I think, is the only river that changes the direction it flows. Crazy right? So every year Cambodians from all over the country descend upon Phnom Penh for three days of celebration. I was being something of a recluse, because the city was so busy. The mornings aren't so bad, but by the time night rolls around its hard to even walk down the street. So Tuesday I made it down to the river front to watch the last day of the boat races. It was pretty cool. They race in long canoe like boats and there are about 60 guys paddling. They haul balls. So I sat on the water front in the "foreigner area" for a couple hours. It was kind of weird to be set apart from everyone else, but at the same time nice I didn't have to worry about pick-pocketers.
I finally had to leave the Water Festival to go visit Pheng at his temple. On my way there it started to poor. I showed up at the pagoda soaking wet, which was pretty awesome. After getting questioned on my marital status and age by a random old man, Pheng and I had an informal English/Khmer lesson that turned into a lesson on Buddhism. The entire time I was at the temple it was pouring outside and by the time I went to leave my shoes were soaked and it was dark out. The old woman who sleeps in the temple kept insisting that I stay the night. I eventually convinced that 7pm was not too late to be wading through calf deep water, and she let me go on the condition that I take her grandson's poncho (even though it was no longer raining). I put the poncho on and it smelled AWESOME. All in all, it was a pretty good day.
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