On the last day of the water festival it was back to the barang tent at about 9am. The tent was fairly empty at first, but it was nice to sit there in the cool breeze and read the paper. After going for a wander to get some munchies around lunchtime, the tent started to fill up and by about 4pm was packed.
During the day, it was more heats or finals, interspersed with some interesting events such as a boat sinking right in front of the tent (they were too busy waving), a practice session for what seem to be the royal rowers, and an unconscious rower being carried up the bank right past the tent – I’ve never seen a bunch of podgy tourists clear a path so fast.
Whoops
Boat-refloating is achieved by bailing a lot (carried out by a select few)
The white boat was the only one to contain some barangs - the ones wearing life jackets
More sweeps
There is not a lot of boat between the water and the crew
These guys got out of their 2 boats, got dressed up and had a little paddle-in-the-air practice - I think they are royal rowers or such - guy in the blue shits is a permanently grumpy manager type in charge of it all
The even longer than normal long blue boat
Look carefully at the crew in the middle of the blue boat - number 304
Getting closer
The other type of "Khmer maiden"
Sitting on the shirt of the guy next to me
Team of 3 long seated boats - that's a team of about 165
This one sits unusually high at the back
Crowded - final estimates were about 3 million people - based on 324 boats there would have been about 60,000 competitors alone
Another, more traditional, "maiden"
Doing the hand dance
As dusk settles, one final row past the king
The royal boaters from before
The finish line now has a ribbon across it and some balloons
Coming up the riven en masse
Lotsa boats
No comments:
Post a Comment