Cambodia – Phnom Penh – November 17 – 20, 2002

We arrived in PhnomPenh about 8pm and went right to our hotel, a small place right on the rivers edge in the center of town. Phnom Penh has about 1.5 million people living there, down from almost 3 million in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge expelled everyone from the city. The Hotel California II, is a favorite among expats who speak English, and we felt right at home.

This is not our room, but the front of the hotel, where we gathered to look at the festivities. You can see the crowds in the streets. And the festival doesn’t even start until tomorrow!

L We were, however, treated to a show of the “lanterns” as they call them, which are large barges with fantastic light displays on them. We saw 6 or 7 barges, each more ornate than the next.

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In the capital city, the infrastructure is really broken. The lights and electricity stayed on, even with another million people streaming into the city to see the Water Festival, which happens every year on this full moon, but the people all stayed on the streets. The river is really polluted, but the homeless street children still swam and played in it. Lots and lots of homeless kids.

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