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The King's Birthday
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When:
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Oct 2007 (annual)
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Where:
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The Royal Palace
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In Cambodia, the king's birthday is a national holiday that features a fireworks display on the banks of the Tonle Sap River in front of Royal Palace - a stunning building of curving roofs with the exquisite Silver Pagoda just next door.
For this day only, the palace is also open to the public.
In Siem Reap, the base town for exploring the ruins of Angkor, locals have their photo taken in front of a freshly-decorated picture of the king. Fireworks also feature in the celebrations here and, if the king is in town, there will be traditional dance in Angkor Wat. For security reasons, however, it's impossible to know in advance if this will take place.
Throughout Cambodia, village halls host graceful performances of classical Khmer dance, children play traditional games and the whole country takes a day off to honour the king - or HM Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Varman, as he is offically known.
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