Experience Chinese New Year in Sihanoukville

via CAAI

2010-12-17

DirectRooms.com is able to reveal that visitors from international locations as well as Cambodians will be heading for the seaside resort of Sihanoukville to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the first week of February 2011. There are numerous residents of Chinese descent in Cambodia

The heady mix of the colourful New Year festivals and parades mixed with the clement weather and warm seas at this time of year ensures that the cheap Sihanoukville hotels do a roaring trade during the festive season. Many Cambodians turn the event into their annual holiday and accommodation is often booked for a week either side of the official New Year.

In 2011, the first new moon in the Chinese lunar calendar occurs on the evening of Thursday 3rd February, and this marks the official end of the old year, and beginning of the new. Due to the fact that the Gregorian calendar is not the same as the Chinese, the New Year does not fall on the same day every year.

Visitors will get the chance of seeing traditional Chinese dragon dances. Residents dress up as a colourful dragon train and dance through the resort town’s streets and offer good luck to all who see them. The whole procession resonates to the sound of firecrackers and drums.

Lek Boonlert, marketing head of DirectRooms commented: “The Chinese New Year celebrations in Cambodia signify the start of a long holiday and inhabitants head south to the nation’s beach resorts on the Gulf of Thailand. Travellers should browse online hotel options if they are planning on visiting Sihanoukville at this time.”