New year jottings

The incense stick collection point at Wat Than

Yesterday was the first day of the Khmer New Year and I accompanied a group of friends to Wat Than on Norodom Boulevard to pay my respects to the monks and my friends' ancestors. Most people tend to go to their preferred wat on the second day of the festival but even so, the pagoda at Wat Than was extremely busy and as the sole foreigner present, I was afforded much smiling and welcoming nods. We gave food to the monks, and received their blessing with some splashing of water, we also placed rice in a line of rice-pots alongwith some small denomination riel notes and then paid our respects with incense sticks and flowers to ancestors and loved ones, as well as wishing for health and prosperity in the coming year. All of the women visiting the wat were neatly dressed, as Savet is in the photo below, and appeared to take the whole thing very seriously. I was pleased that so many people are still keen to observe the Khmer traditions and enjoyed the experience of my first New Year's wat visit. I also found it amusing to watch the young street kids emptying the pots of the 100 riel notes as soon as the worshippers had put the money in the pot. It was certainly their big pay day, before they were chased away by one of the wat's laymen.

Savet, in her best temple-visiting clothes, thought she looked like a Muslim woman!

Today, I stayed indoors for much of the day as it was far too hot to do anything other than sit in front of the fan, but I did venture out for some food and found the streets around BKK1 remarkably quiet and devoid of traffic, or in fact, any life at all. The absence of motodops and tuk-tuk drivers soliciting my business was particularly noticeable. Many of them come to the capital for a few months each year to earn money outside of the farming season, so they've returned to their families in the provinces for the new year period. This evening I popped into the Red Orchid bar and restaurant, just around the corner from my house to wish the owners a happy new year and they responded with a free meal and drinks. They get my vote for bar of the year any day!