River swimming
Now here’s something I would hate to do..........
....but this week-end, 112 people from more than 20 different countries did.
Here's some of them, about to splash-dash the 650 metres from one side of the Mekong to the other:
And here they are in full flow:
Chkouwat,chkouwat (crazy!), the lot of them.
Last week I met a couple of ladies from Australia who were going to do it. So they're in there somewhere. And here's a couple I vaguely know (he plays guitar at church) celebrating on the other side:
Dave and Hayley Saxby (28 and 25) after swimming across the Mekong
Why anyone would want to spend a good 20 minutes or so whipping through the muddy Mekong in bright bright sunlight and quite possibly swallowing great lung-fulls of fairly polluted water, I know not.
But Dave and Hayley seem to have enjoyed it. And part of me (albeit with a slightly sick feeling in my stomach) can't help but be impressed. Especially as all the money raised will go towards promoting and supporting the Cambodian Children’s Trust Survival Swimming Programme, a Battambang-based project that teaches children basic survival skills and water safety knowledge.*
And if anything I've learnt about water since I've been here, not teaching kids to keep their heads above it is chkouwat, chkouwat (see February's "Swimming" post).
*from: "Scores of swimmers splash out to conquer the Mekong" by Ruth Keber, Phnom Penh Post, 01 April 2013
....but this week-end, 112 people from more than 20 different countries did.
Here's some of them, about to splash-dash the 650 metres from one side of the Mekong to the other:
And here they are in full flow:
Chkouwat,chkouwat (crazy!), the lot of them.
Last week I met a couple of ladies from Australia who were going to do it. So they're in there somewhere. And here's a couple I vaguely know (he plays guitar at church) celebrating on the other side:
Dave and Hayley Saxby (28 and 25) after swimming across the Mekong
Why anyone would want to spend a good 20 minutes or so whipping through the muddy Mekong in bright bright sunlight and quite possibly swallowing great lung-fulls of fairly polluted water, I know not.
But Dave and Hayley seem to have enjoyed it. And part of me (albeit with a slightly sick feeling in my stomach) can't help but be impressed. Especially as all the money raised will go towards promoting and supporting the Cambodian Children’s Trust Survival Swimming Programme, a Battambang-based project that teaches children basic survival skills and water safety knowledge.*
And if anything I've learnt about water since I've been here, not teaching kids to keep their heads above it is chkouwat, chkouwat (see February's "Swimming" post).
*from: "Scores of swimmers splash out to conquer the Mekong" by Ruth Keber, Phnom Penh Post, 01 April 2013
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