Madness

We had a taste of the traffic chaos expected during the water festival's 3-day horror-show next week, when the traffic lights failed on the city's main thoroughfares around 5pm tonight and every road including all the side roads around BKK1 were snarled up with traffic jams. It was complete madness and much like what I experienced during last year's water festival period. This year I won't be around as I'm off to the south coast on Saturday for a week's break. My brother is due to arrive on Thursday night from the UK for a 3-week visit and I've booked us a couple of nights in Kep for the weekend to escape both the water festival as well as the Independence day ceremonies that will take place this coming Sunday. I've never stayed in Kep before, so that'll be a first. We'll then move onto Kampot for a night or two before heading to Sihanoukville for a couple of nights and then we'll see where the wind takes us. I wouldn't mind at least two nights on an island somewhere, but we'll see. For those remaining in town, and for the hundreds of thousands who will come into the city from the provinces, there will be a host of music performances to enjoy as well as the boat racing of course on the Tonle Sap River from the Japanese Bridge up to the finishing post directly opposite the Royal Palace. Let's hope there's no repeat of last year's boat fatalities.