Khmer New Year

Phnom Penh Post contributing author Sebastian Strangio has a blog. Here he is on Khmer New Year.

Khmer New Year and the stifling heat of mid-April have conspired to cast a smothering blanket over Phnom Penh. Just about everything is shut: even the roadside barbers have folded up their chairs, unhooked their mirrors, and scattered back to the provinces to pursue the cycle of binge-eating, Buddhist offerings and family activities that marks the nation’s main annual holiday. At the height of noon, the park on Sothearos Boulevard is an empty expanse of rippling heat-mirages crowned with palms, mobile towers and the needle-points of Buddhist stupas. The streets nearby hum with sparse, listless traffic.

It’s good stuff.