Fed on eggs, coconut water and beer, Vietnam's oxen race in muddy festival

Organisers take oxen to the starting line during the Bay Nui ox race in An Giang province on September 24, 2022. The bovines and their owners gathered for the annual Bay Nui ox race as part of the Sene Dolta festival, where the Khmer community remember their ancestors and a clutch of sports and art activities are held. - AFP

AN GIANG (Vietnam), Sept 25, 2022 (AFP): Their stomachs full of eggs, beer and coconut water, Nguyen Van Liet's prized white oxen streak ahead of their rivals to the cheer of tens of thousands of spectators in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

The bovines and their owners gathered on a hot morning in a muddy field for the annual Bay Nui ox race -- a celebrated ritual of Vietnam's Khmer minority, ethnic Cambodians living mostly in the country's south.