The Tonle Sap – one of the wonders of the world!

For 6 months of the year, the Tonle Sap river – the lifeblood of Cambodia – runs backwards, causing massive flooding in the middle of the country. The Tonle Sap lake swells to 10 times its dry season size, becoming the size of Wales and hosting a unique eco-system, with a huge variety of fish species and vast areas of flooded forest. Lots of people live in floating villages on the lake, as pictured here. The reason the river runs backwards is that it can’t drain into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh during the rainy season, because the Mekong itself is so full. Now, however, the rainy season has just finished, so the rivers are not so full and the Tonle Sap can start draining back into the Mekong and running the right way. The Cambodians celebrate this amazing phenomenon every year by holding a Water Festival. Each village mans a dragon boat and competes in heats all around the country with the finals being held for three days in Phnom Penh. It’s a very colourful affair and Phnom Penh will be rocking this weekend, with 3 million people travelling to watch the races. Unfortunately I will miss the Festival, because I am taking advantage of the national holiday and heading off to explore Vietnam, but I have managed to view some boats practising - spectacular.