How to Celebrate Chinese New Year: Rabbit Edition

Welcome to the Rabbits. Happy Chinese New Year. Happy Lunar New Year. Happy New Year.

When you're as big, as wealthy, and as influential as China currently is, your specialized New Year is celebrated regionally. Actually, it's because most Cambodians have some Chinese origins. The public schools and most businesses close for the three day Chinese New Year even though the royal Cambodian government doesn't acknowledge it as an official holiday.

I didn't think Chinese New Year would be anything significant in Phnom Penh. I virtually forgot about it. There was a lull in the Cambodia holiday schedule (which conveniently coincided with when I started working) with the next massive break in April for Cambodian New Year.

Yet on the first day of Chinese New Year, I went out on errands and was shocked to learn I could drive across town in less then five minutes when it normally takes upwards of 10 or 15. There was no traffic...which in Cambodia means free reign to run red lights...which I may have done...maybe. Almost everything was closed and people stayed home with family and friends.

The one exciting bit is the dragon dancing. Businesses will hire dragon dancing troupes to perform in front of their establishments. Banks will have fabulous dancing for a long time. Smaller businesses have less elaborate performances for shorter durations. People will scurry around neighborhoods to catch the dragon dancing. It's that popular and I still see some sporadic dragon dancing though the holiday was two weeks ago.

My treat to myself for the second new year of 2011 was working from coffee shops instead of the office, just because I couldn't pass up getting across town so fast. In reality though, I used the lull of Phnom Penh insanity to learn to drive with a passenger. It was highly rewarding and now I can drive in 5pm traffic in Phnom Penh's busiest roads with someone riding on the back on my moto.

Everyone needs several New Years! I think it was my family who pointed out the real value of two--or three--new years is the ability to restart your resolutions if you fail the first time around. Incidentally, many of the lanterns are still up. Maybe the strategy is to wait until Cambodian New Year and double up.

How to Visit Pre Veng

I've not really been anywhere in Cambodia yet-aside from the overnight whirlwind trip down to the beach back in December. This was partially intentional. You only have to get over your gut-twisting terror of new places first before your linguistic skills are good enough and your mastery of foreign currencies and foreign food takes over and you're outrageously outgoing.

This post-fear stage ended last weekend when I went two hours southeast of Phnom Penh to Pre Veng Province to stay with friends in Pre Veng town. I needed to leave the thriving metropolis of Phnom Penh in all it's traffic and insanity (actually, I adore Phnom Penh but I had the travel itch). I thought I was going to the sticks--one coworker describes it it as living at the last stop on the Pony Express--but I was pretty sure my friends had a hot shower so I figured it couldn't be that bad. This is why I only went for three days.

Pre Veng town is a actual town. In some ways, it reminded me visiting a close friend in Filer Idaho; smallish houses, wide roads, not a lot of traffic, few trees and a lot of agriculture. Probably half the populous travels by bike, the other half by moto. There were significantly fewer Lexus to prick my indignation. There's one market, many colorful traditional wooden houses each on an actual piece of property, and way more plastic bags on the ground because in Phnom Penh they try and keep it clean for us "brongs." There's a "waterfront/lake" which is currently receding as we're entering the dry season yet will fill back up beginning the end of May with the rains.

The real reason for going was that my entire being craves riding a bike. I got to ride a bike in Pre Veng. It was hardly my specialty 24.5 lb road bike. It was an orange Chinese cruiser...and yes...there was a basket. But that's what everyone else rides in Pre Veng and given that Pre Veng is as a flat as Holland, gears aren't necessary. I went out with my coworkers on the dusty dirt roads of rural Cambodia, through the lotus and rice fields, adjacent to a Mekong River tributary, crossing the river on hand-crafted ferry, through rural villages where small children practice their English vocab ("hello!"), and drinking iced sugar cane juice out of a plastic bag. It was even further then the last stop on the Pony Express....and possibly the most epic Cambodian experience thus far.

This makes for a good weekend. We all need weekends away. And we always love when we feel comfortable enough in new places to begin venturing out.

How Border Disputes Continue

I have high hopes for 2011. I almost phrased that sentence in past-tense. But optimistically, I think it still will be a good year, if only because South Sudan will become it's own nation on 9 July 2011. That alone makes 2011 a good year.

Alas though, slightly less then four months after I arrive, Cambodia and Thailand resumed their boarder disputes last Friday and are still continuing. The main issue is a 900 old temple, Preah Vihear, which both countries claim. The International Court ruled in 1962 that the temple was Cambodia's even though it's on semi-deputed ground and the entrance is on the Thai side. In 2008 UNESCO ruled the same temple a world heritage sight. This didn't exactly please Thailand. Regardless, the temple receives little tourism traffic due to remote location and the militarization which has mushroomed up around it doesn't encourage even the most fearless backpacker.

This is not the first time we've been fighting over this temple. It's not unusual to shoot at each other a few hours every few months. This however is the longest sustained exchange of violent hostilities. However Cambodia has requested UN intervention for mediation. Thailand suggests it can be resolved in negotiations.

No one knows who started this latest incident. No one knows how long it will continue. No one knows what the other's motive is. We do know the disputed 11th century temple has now partially collapsed and we know several people have died and several thousand have been displaced. Last week in Cambodia two Thai nationals were jailed for espionage which is attributed as the spark for this fire. People are bothered, but at the same time, life just carries on and people have faith things will just resolve themselves out sooner or later. That's the Cambodian way. If anything, it's tapping into some discontent that the Cambodia government hasn't pushed harder earlier to resolve the border dispute. That's being perceived as a sign of weakness.

I guess what continues to impress me is that intimidating one's neighbors is still the golden standard of international relations...military power first and then economics. It happens all over the world. Does taking what we want really warrant respect? Does expansion of our economic power afford the same respect? Border disputes continue and concessions and talks are signs of weakness. I don't know how to fix it. I doubt anyone truly does in our world of realpolitik which predates the Renaissance. It's a shame. It's a shame to everyone living in disputed territories who aren't given the dignity of living in stability.

And so India and Pakistan continue to war over Kashmir. Thailand and Cambodia dispute over Preah Vihear. Israel and Palestine have been deadlocked for over half a century. And Ethiopia and Eritrea continue to amass troops over the legitimacy of each other's existence. Oh yes...and the Middle East is restructuring. Indeed, I still hope 2011 will be a good year....

Photo Credit: Reuters