Khmer New Year of 2016

#lastyear

Last year’s Khmer New Year was spent in Koh Rohng Samloem, and I had some quality times there, very very worth it. It was pretty fast as well, thinking that those times were actually one year ago makes me feel so old.

#thisyear

This year’s Khmer New Year is an unplanned one, people here call it, “dek teas saart”, which translates into something like this, “beautifully sleeping at home”. Although that's not the exact meaning, but it's pretty close, it means you are not going anywhere, even if you do, it's probably somewhere nearby; can be called an unplanned holiday.

#theunplannedholiday

The word “Holiday” is like the perfect word to describe being able to get super lazy and relax and sometimes literally do nothing at all, except for eating a lot of food and watching a lot of tv and games and doing useless stuffs to burn the possibly the longest holiday of the year; which I, myself did it for many times before getting into the blogging and fotography I’m doing rite now. I’m very aware that it still occurs to most of the teenagers here and I regret having done it for many times in the past, but now that I’m somehow more mature than I was two years ago, I can see how useless it was and now still is. I’m done with all those stuffs and have somehow managed to do something else which gives more energy and usefulness to myself and later, probably for the society (just saying…:)

#somanylectures

You can definitely slack off during the holidays, but that's when you dun really have a clue how much time you actually have in hand and how much work can be done in that amount of time; which in my case, will definitely help a lot with my work and all, which will definitely affect everything I will be doing after the holidays. So what I think everyone should be doing is that they should definitely have fun, else there's no point in getting so many days off and have nothing to do; and should definitely try to make something out of the holiday, because believe me, you have no idea how much time there is in your hands until you actually decide to take it out and try using it.

Enough with all the holiday definition thingy, let's get back to the holiday itself. I can say that we have been developing like crazy, maybe not so much with the construction and roads and all, but definitely the tourism side; it's growing like crazy. People might be saying that there are only locals going to places such as Angkor Wat and Pub Street and those amazeball places we have here in Cambodia, and that we lack the likes of overseas tourists, but that doesn't really matter does it? The grass is always gonna be greener on the other side (I’m talking about the likes of Thailand where there are tons and tons of overseas tourists compared to us), but if we always keep our mind in the positive mode, local tourists are giving us a lot of interests, and that is way better than going overseas and spending money in other countries. I’m not saying we shouldn't be going overseas, they are great and niiice and an inspiration to our development, they are not bad guys.

#khmernewyearhasevolved

Khmer New Year has attracted so many locals, especially teenagers, and when there are teenagers, there are the parents, no one is leaving no one behind, and in this case, it just makes the tourism part even better and better. As we all know, we are opened to more knowledge and education nowadays, parents and all are more open minded than ever before, so are their kids; that's a great great news. Teenagers now are engaged with the idea of being kool and swag and classic and all those influence and cultures we all get from all the great technologies. It is always good to be a part of something that is already there and very famous, but we have to also keep it low and to never exaggerate. Most of the organizations in charge of making the festival very engaged with teenagers and mixing up the past and the modern, I must say, are ran by either teenagers themselves or people who know us very well. They bring in new and exciting things so that it will entertain literally everyone, and if we are to make things better, we are in the rite path.

#angkorsongkran

Angkor Songkran means like a celebration in Angkor itself, celebrating for the Khmer New Year that will be coming the day before the Angkor Songkran will be held. I have no idea what people actually do in Angkor Songkran, but I’m sure that it's definitely something very fun, else no one would be joining. Honestly, I’ve never been to an Angkor Songkran before, so I dun have a clue how it looks like, but by the looks of the images I searched for in Google Images, it looks like there are pretty fun activities. I see stuffs like water guns and water balloons, some Khmer traditional games, I seepeople shaking off their stress with the remix of Khmer traditional dance and the trendy “Nhi Keng Jerng Dance”, you just simply put your heels on any plain platform and start twisting it with a bit of Marizon (dance) to it; I call it the Khmer version of Gangnam Style maybe?

#13thprayersday

By the 13th, people have already given their prayers and received grace from the new God of this year. Every year there comes a different God who to my perspective, is the one who will be responsible for all the things that will be happening that year; most likely to look like the animal that is in the zodiac sign. There is always green screen play on tv every year, showing probably a crew of that tv show dressing up like a random God and sitting on his cloud on the way to Earth; no offense here to whichever ministry or organization who is responsible for the green screen, I just think that for some thing this important and rare, it should be made with better technical skills.

#notoldyetnotsoyoung

It looks like we have been desperately finding a way to make everything not old yet not so young, and we’ve a lot of ways to make that method work. We like being trendy and modernized more than being out of trend and look ancient, we do like them more, but what’s most important thing rite now is that we have PRIORITIZED the past more than what’s now or the past. Fortunately, people have found their way to liking the mix of past and modern so much that it also has become a trend, and that trend is never something bad for a country that is rapidly growing. We take objects like Kroma (Khmer towel) and make it something fashionable and showcase it around the world that it's ours and we’re not shy to say that we're proud of it. Characters like Hanuman (The Monkey God) or Yiek (Typical Khmer giant), have been made into books for college students who are majoring the Fine Arts here; moreover, these characters are literally everywhere, down the graffiti streets, printed on T-shirts, made as mask, used in posters for things relating or representing CAMBODIA. There's no doubt that we have been prouder than ever before.

#khmernewyearitself   

This year, the Khmer New Year itself went pretty well. By saying so, it involves both my holiday and the general holiday I see people having. Some enjoyed full-time slack at their home sweet home, some recorded many good moments into their history book and wish to be wherever they were again next year. I had a good holiday as well, watched some pretty rock-solid movies, did some crucial work, nap some incredible naps, and let's not forget the water park I went earlier this week plus a relaxing trip to Sihanouk Ville; which has officially made my skin peeling off like a snake’s. The overall holiday was very good, the general one I mean, there seemed to be more and more activities every year, more tourists and locals out there for a treat. Phnom Penh was not silent until the actual day of the Khmer New Year, I dunno how ya’ll think, but I am always positively thinking and this to me means probably we’re a bit more populated than last year, you just never know, do ya?

Let the new year make you better.

The Grand Phnom Penh Water Park in Cambodia

Water park has somehow never been on my priority list at all, probably because there isn’t one here? maybe? or is it just me enjoying childhood pretty well that I dun have any issue missing water park for the last 15 years.

Grand Phnom Penh Water Park is probably the first ever proper water park we have here in Cambodia, the looks seem to impress me; which of course is the reason why I decided to go and give it a shot. As I’m writing the intro of this article, I have no idea how tomorrow will go for me, what kind of impression the water park will give. You just never know, do you? it can always make and can always break, and I hope it will make me want to go there again and again.

There is no doubt now that the water park has successfully lured my brain to go again, because today was an insane day, memorable and awesomeee. I went there with a bunch of friends, it was quite a long trip to be honest; I was nagging and all about the weather and that I had to wait for a friend, but that happened because I didn't have a clue what was gonna come. I didn't like the weather at all, it wasn't that hot actually, it's more of the humidity stuff which had been annoying me since I woke up, you can't breathe proper.

As my impatience went up, I hurried to the changing room and swiftly did everything I needed to do and down I went, to the giant slides. Of course, it was more than what I expected, both the look and the feel; the feel came a bit late, but it hit me hard and sucked me in. I was declared restless in less than 30 minutes, after some twisty/speed-of-light kind of action, I went for the straightforward one, and fell in love with it. The basic logic you get from playing in a water park is that you get to repeat whatever you’re doing again and again, and that so should be applied in reality as well. When you are doing something pretty legit and good or let’s just say FUN, you’ll want to do it again.

The first few slides scared the chicken outta me, but that was probably it, the whole day was left for me to enjoy. It wasn't just the slides though, the people and the environment were grand, it was one hell of a water park. You just can't deny the fun, it will make you go for it and never ever want to leave it; you normally see all the old guys and parents just hanging around the corner doing nothing rite? well there were few, but most of them were in the water, doing slides, WWE-ing in the water, getting massage by the falling bucket of water, basically, the fun was also intended for them. As you all know, I didn’t have a clue what a water park can give until today, means I had no idea that it was this good. I like the idea a lot as well, the idea of being able to entertain anyone; no age limits, nothing else is required, you just have to be human and you’ll get the fun too.

After many many slides, I wasn’t that tired, but it’s obvious that I had to have lunch. The weather was at its best, tanning everyone including me, and literally telling everyone to get off the park and go eat. The lunch place was very crowded, no orders were allowed to make anymore, so I had no choice but to pick up some ready made salad and sandwich to make my tummy a bit stabilized. After 30 minutes or so, I decided to go make some orders because I wasn’t going to go back in the water, “not being full”. I waited for 2 hours to get everything I had ordered, I mean they were worth it; but along the course, I was irritated, I was nagging a lot , things were not supposed to be this long.

The Cheng Meng Festival of 2016

I’m already so happy right now, writing this article for the second time was expected, but the journey and the matter of time wasn’t that easy at all. I mean you just feel good writing a second part of any article, it makes you feel like you’ve lasted for quite some time, and that's never something bad to acknowledge.

So many things changed, but Cheng Meng didn't. It has and is and will always be a very special occasion for us all. I’ve always attended the occasion, but not this year; exams and tight schedules, I had no choice but to miss it. Mom and dad were having good times travelling to their hometowns and spend their time freely, and with no pressure. Mom came back with a big smile on her tanned face, having heard and laughed about so many jokes and gossips with her siblings. Dad had a great time hanging out with the in-laws, despite never actually having had a conversation with any one of them before. They both came back very happily, it’s been so long since the last time they had this much time to actually hang out with anyone.

As always, there were many foods to offer to our ancestors; the prosperity was too much that it has also flooded our refrigerator, and me. The ancestors has been there for us when they were alive, and now as they’re gone far away, they somehow smuggled a bit of help to our everyday life. It’s hard to actually believe that they’re still here with us, but most do believe and that’s how and why the ritual is still going on every single year. Unless everyone has stopped believing in their beliefs or religions, Gods and all will still exist. How we feel about a certain thing is always the case, imagine us not having feelings, that will be another very crazy case to even talk about.

I personally dun really have a certain God that I pray to, to me they’re all the same, they might have different superpowers or histories or whatever it is, but they do have one common thing, they are always here to help. Gods are known to be very very kind, in a very thoughtful, as I know about Buddha, Buddha helps you unconditionally, never wanting anything back from you at all. They are known to help everyone in need, in whichever situation each of us are in, they twist and turn and compose the story of your life. That’s why there’s a saying that goes by, “Life is a story.”, and it definitely is; to some, they strongly believe that it has been decided for them of how their life will be.

All I do is to pray, no matter to which God you’re praying for help, God will help. So, just pray.

Pray, pray, pray again, and again, and never stop praying.