New Year, New Country

We had timed our arrival in Luang Prabang (Laos) to coincide with the beginning of the new year celebrations across Laos, which occur between the 13th and 16th April. Little could prepare us for this giant water fight, as thousands of Laos children and adults sprawled the streets armed with water-guns in hand, ready to attack and show no mercy to anyone and everyone!

Ready for the fight

Supposedly the celebrations commemorate the washing of the Buddha, and the serious message is now broadcasted through a fun celebration of super-soakers, coloured paint and worst of all, flour! (We managed to avoid the flour attacks, but not the paint, alas). Given that Laos is a very Buddhist country, the New Year is a huge thing out here compared to other countries, with monks travelling from all across Laos to join in with the festival. Despite the serious message underpinning the Laos New Year, nowadays its apparently developed a reputation for underage drinking and debauchery among the Laos people.

When we arrived in Laos airport we were fairly exhausted from our day of travelling, which had involved a 2 hour taxi ride and two flights, and made our way to our hotel to finally check in and relax. It was only until the next day when the celebrations began and we decided to go head-first into the action on the main market street. Needless to say, we were dry for around 2 minutes after leaving the hotel and don't think we dried off until a good few hours after that. It wasn't long before we had children spraying us with water, some with hose pipes and buckets.  In England the festival clearly wouldn't work, with hypothermia setting in before the feeling of fun, but in 40 degree heat there is something refreshing about the water attacks, and we barely noticed the baking heat from sun this day!

So we wandered through the parade (which was packed out with tourists and locals), soaked to our skin at about 10 AM. This was just the start of it. We headed to a beautiful temple which acted as a bit of respite, and ended up buying two small water guns to act as some futile form of self-defence. (Turns out that having a gun just makes you more of a target, who'd have thought?!) Poor Matt ended up getting his white T-shirt sprayed with pink paint, which would ultimately create a tye-dye effect of colours as the celebration progressed over the three days! Hat 3 of mine also ended up getting some pink highlights, but lived to tell the tale, thankfully. We spent the afternoon chilling in the hotel so we were a little sheltered to the afternoons activities. However, that evening we headed out for beer by the river and received another super-soaking by the time we arrived, even getting water-gunned by the waiter! This evening had dinner at a French-Laos fusion restaurant, which was superb. It served all kinds of tasty local specialities such as sautéed duck and yellow curries, served with black sticky rice - something neither of us had tasted before. It served as a nice introduction to Laos cuisine, and we vowed to come back there for another meal at some point!

On day two Laos had upped the ante and the main day for the New Year celebrations had started. The Main Street was packed out and the water fights were reaching guerrilla-warfare level amongst the crowds. We stopped by at a cafe beside the street to watch the world pass by. It was fun to see people of all ages and nationalities get involved - it really was a magical sight. Before long a parade started in the main Ssreet which essentially told a story involving Buddha - this was told by streams of drumming monks, girls in role as princesses, and boys in monkey masks who played the role of the Hindu god Hanuman. All the while, the chaos of the water fight continued. The atmosphere was fantastic, we had seen nothing like it before.

Dozens of Hanumans getting soaked!

Later in the day the celebrations continued, with crowds of young people on the back of pick up trucks doing laps of Luang Prabang with paddling pools full of coloured water and cold beers. Music and dancing filled the streets. We observed it passively by a junction, which was great fun! The traffic, sometimes at a complete stand still, was controlled by police officers who looked exasperated at the best of times. A few of the friendly locals would hop of their pick up trucks now and then to give them beers, which they would stash by the road side for later. A couple of hours passed by and the officers were eventually soaked themselves, mostly due to a few brave drunkards on the cars. No one was safe at this stage!

 

The water fights continued into the afternoon and we headed back to the hotel to escape for a bit. On our way back were attacked with bright red hand prints, which dyed my hair pink for a few days after! Both of us ended up slipping over at one point trying to escape the thick of it, Matt going down bum-first, much to the delight of the children nearby, and then me laughing at him before falling over myself. Poetic justice, some might say.