Bon Om Tuk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today, Phnom Penh is busy preparing to celebrate tomorrow's festival, Bon Om Tuk, ow Water Festival. The performers are busy practicing in the different temporary theaters set up in the parks in the city. But the most famous of the performances is the boat race on the Tonle Sap River on November 1, 2009. Boats from the different provinces come to join the race. Each team goes on its own rythmn with the lead guy in the boat conducting with his hand or with a drum or with his paddle. It is very colorful and offers a great spectacle to both locals and tourists.


This festival is celebrated on the occasion of the Tonle Sap River turning its course. It is also to commemorate the victory of Jayavarman VII over the Chams who invaded the Khmer Kingdom. As well, it is to celebrate the end of the monsoons and the beginning of the fishing season.

The Sisowath Riverside is the best venue to view the race. There are many restaurants with second or third floors to give you a good view. For some of us, the Foreign Correspondents' Club or the FCC as it is known in Phnom Penh is the best place to get a really good view of the celebration.

White Rose Restaurant, Battambang, Cambodia

When you go around Cambodia, most likely, you will go through Battambang Province, a bustling province close to the Thai border. It is famous for its sweet oranges around September and October as well as its unique Cambodian cuisine. To try this, go to White Rose Restaurant. It is right at a strategic corner of the big market and shopping area. As you go in the restaurant, you will see the tables always full of both foreigners and locals. You must try the coconut smoothie made from a very milky coconut that only grows in that province. You can also buy this coconut from the restaurant to bring home with you, keep very cold in the fridge to be enjoyed in your own home made smoothie. They also make other types of smoothies from a variety of local fruits ranging from papaya, to honey pineapple, dragon fruit and whatever are in season. This is worth a stop for a very good meal.

Ancestral Spirits: Paying Respect

Cambodia just finished Pchum Ben, a week of visiting pagodas to honor the ancestral spirits. Most Cambodians, at least, visit 3 pagodas.

In their finest clothes, Cambodians line up in pagodas to offer incense, food and money. You see them in the streets carrying their rice containers. From these, they scoop rice over bowls lined up in long tables at the pagoda. In between these bowls were trays for the money offering. Bundles of hundred Khmer bills were offered. Pagodas provide music to make the days festive.

Wine and Airport Travel

With all the duty free stores selling some of your favorite wines or spirits at discount prices, the temptation is strong to pick up one. Before you do this, make sure you have a direct flight to your destination and you carry with you only the required quantity allowed by the country you are going to. Some countries like Maldives do not allow you to bring in wine. They will confiscate it in the airport but will give it back to you before you leave. The hassle is not worth it.

If you have a stop over, just don't bother to bring a bottle or two of your favorite wine in your carry on luggage. Even if you are in transit, going through security all over again, chances are these bottles will be confiscated. I was in HK airport just last week and the expensive ice wine I bought in Vancouver was confiscated by security so am here in Phnom Penh apologizing to my friends for not giving them a taste of Canadian icewine.

Village Works Travel Bag

Village Works is an NGO located in the corner fronting Toul Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This place is known as the prison where many Khmers who had any connection with the ruling government at that time were executed by the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. Village Works help many disabled and land mine victims to become more productive and thus, enjoy a quality of life all humans aspire to. One of the good buys in this center is this cloth travel bag stamped with fish. As you can see in the picture, you can carry this by hand or hang it on your shoulder. It is big enough for a weekend or overnight or as a carry on in an airline. Its two pockets on one side are useful for travel documents and the open pockets on the other side are for books and snacks or other things you want easy access to. The fabric is strong and looks classy in cotton hand printed with the fish design.

How to Find Vacation Rentals

If you have stayed in vacation rentals or holiday villas and have booked the same place for your next vacation, you are really, really, REALLY, lucky. Finding the ideal vacation rental is part science, part prayer, but mainly just plain hard work. They are not all Gates Hotels and you must have heard horror stories from your relatives and friends of places they have rented as featured dream castles, only to find out they had been sentenced to a week in an undrained bog at the end of an unmarked road with a leaky roof. Pictures, nowadays, can be easily...ahhhhh....enhanced to look magnificent and descriptions can be twisted to Wordsworthian flights of bucolic fantasy. Well, it is not too late to learn to be a smart vacation shopper. If you take the time needed to do your homework, chances are, you will be rewarded with gems you will always treasure. So, here are some tips:

Ta Phrom Temple, Angkor, Cambodia

Listen up! You may not have heard the name of this fabulous temple before, but, for certain, you will recognise it. Think Tomb Raider. Think Angelina Jolie being directed by the little girl to the jasmine plant before she fell down the hole into the temple. Beyond this, it is certainly the most published photograph of Angkor...more