Starters Orders in Battambang

After several lean months, the holiday season has arrived again and last month’s Pchum Ben will soon be followed by Cambodia’s annual Water Festival which sees the happy provincial hordes descend on Phnom Penh.

Battambang was looking clean, bright and pretty last week as heats were held on the Sangker River to decide who would showcase the province’s rowing talents next month in Phnom Penh. The most fiercely competed races with the lustiest howling from those taking part were very definitely the women’s heats. And when the day had run its course and night descended, festivities moved into the normally sleepy town which was perked up no end by families of revellers banging drums and carrying boats aloft in rowdy processions.