The story
Battambang Water Festival in Battambang
Battambang's Water Festival is the provincial version of Cambodia's nationwide Bon Om Touk, held on the Sangkae River when the lunar calendar marks the rainy season's end. Longboat crews race through the afternoon while illuminated Prateep Kandal floats and cultural performances fill the evening. Smaller and calmer than Phnom Penh's capital celebration, it draws mostly domestic visitors and offers a close-up, low-crowd way to watch the same countrywide tradition play out on a provincial river.
Battambang's stretch of the Sangkae River turns into a racecourse each year Bon Om Touk arrives, the nationwide Water and Moon Festival that Khmer tradition times to the reversal of the Tonle Sap's currents at the close of the rainy season, usually in late October or November per the lunar calendar.