Celebration Times C'mon

First off was St. Paddy's.... yeah an Irish party that took place at the Lao Cultural Centre with Lao bands serenaded by a weird hippy French group that no doubt had enough armpit hair for us all but had a drole alure that only maybe Tom Waits playing an accordian and a synth could pull off. It was then off to the French Cultural Centre to take some live Irish tunes, dance a jig, and do all the great things Irish are renowned to do (except fight of course).

Turns out this vid had been watched 201 times on YouTube since I posted it on May 22nd. Guess word is getting out. Rap Rock hits Laos late, but they are still me fave in town.

Next up was Pi Mai Lao, or rather Theravada Buddhist new year. Basically a huge water fight (I mean jubilant water toss that takes place in Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and any other country I might be missing) on the new moon of the 4th month. It is now the year 2550.

To celebrate I attended a baci at my Lao teacher's house where I ate way too much fish and noodles, drank way too much beer, got far too wet and covered in baby powder and basically had way too much fun.

This lady was 60+ and had more energy than a supernova.

A family wishing my drunken ass well, of course the wishes and inebriation were mutual.

Getting soaked for the fifth of at least 50 times over the 4 day holiday


I know this is a crappy vid.. but if you have some bass on your speaks, you can get an idea of what Lao folk music is about and have mini groove to the closest thing to reggae Asia has I think. It is tradition to go to the temple and wet the Buddha images with perfumed water to bring the new year in. This was Wat Simuang, one of the more famous temples in Vientiane.

The last day of the holiday it was off in a longtail boat to Nam Ngum with fellow CUSO volunteers and administration staff. It is a man made lake that was created in 1972 by a joint Japanese/American venture by a hydro-electric dam project.

The area was flooded before the timber could be logged. Supposedly this was to stop the inevitable encroachment of the Pathet Lao and their takeover of the capital Vientiane. Or rather the woods were full of commies and local economies were far less important than flooding the reds out.

The lake at Nam Ngum has many islands that were once the crest of steep hills, two of which are prisons. One for the men, and one for women. Of which most of the later were prostitutes following a massive crack down on the now infamous Indochina sex-trade by the Revolutionary regime that took power in 1975.

Hey Boo-boo.... what is in the picky-knick basket?
Why Yogi, of course it is the staple sticky rice, beerlao, and fried fish.

On the way home from the lake it was sweet revenge on the last day of the water fight as we drove back in the back of the pick-up armed with water baggies (unfortunately bags used as balloons.. which would be just as bad... can't beat the litter join it I suppose... the fun is worth it.)

So the festive times continue.. and continue to be festive. Boun Bon Fie.. aka the rocket festival has been going on for 2 months now with a different Boun in different towns each weekend. The idea is to shoot home-made rockets to the sky to bring on the rainy season and water for the rice paddy's... It's definitely starting to work.

Not the safest thing I bet, but hand packed gun-powder into PVC pipe is first judged by weight and decoration before being blasted to Nirvana... hopefully.

The day I attended it was a stinky hot dry 40 degrees. The throats well cooled but still needed protection from neighbouring rice paddy dust. No matter how bad of a cover of Hotel California the band was playing it just could not be sung. (I VOTE TO BAN THAT SONG... THE ONLY THING IT IS GOOD FOR IS KARAOKE..
BUT ONLY IF DESPERATE AND ENGLISH SPEAKING)

Oh yeah, and the other thing about this festival is that the men like to dress like girls.
As if there weren't enough lady-boys over in these parts already.