Sabai Dee Pii Mai (Happy New Year!)

Luang Prabang, Laos

April 15, 2010

Happy New Year from Laos. In the middle of April. Sounds strange right? Actually (after a good night's sleep and some breakfast) it turned out to be one of the greatest/coolest days in SE Asia! We woke up refreshed and ready to take on the water fight from the ground up. We decided to get a feel for the city and made the wet and perilous journey up and down the main street taking in the temples set against a backdrop of beautiful scenery. After our touristy morning we decided it was time to get in on the action and started throwing our own water whilst dodging streams erupting from water guns from hidden snipers as pick up trucks overflowing with people swamped us with buckets from above. Some of the water was colored so by the end of the day were looked like tye dyed powdered donuts (as a favorite past time of the water fight is throwing baby powder or flour on participants.)

We had met some Laos kids our age earlier in the morning and ended up heading to their house and spent the whole day and most of the night hanging out with them. It was pretty hilarious trying to communicate with everyone as we spoke broken English and Thai to them, while they spoke Lao (which is close to Thai.) It was so much fun as Tuay, Putan, Meow. Neung and all of their friends took us under their wing and welcomed us to celebrate with them. As the sun was going down over the day's celebration we decided to take a dip in the Nong Khai river which sounds more romantic than it actually was (it had a pretty rank smell once you were in the water.) As we were drying off we were invited to have some beers with these 2 men in a makeshift lean-to who looked like they may have been there since the rocks on the side of the river were formed--Talk about language barrier. Yet, as I'm finding from my time in this strangely wonderful side of the world, laughter has the ability to crack any sort of miscommunication.

After a swim against the river current we were pretty beat and made our way back to the hotel for a shower and some much needed down time. A late dinner was eaten in a subdued manner as we could barely keep our eyes open..well that is until I let out an unintentional bel chthat may have shaken the entire country. Josie and Emily looked a bit mortified until the 3 of us burst into uncontrollable laughter over the whole situation. Yea, I think it was definitely time for bed after that :) An overall successful second New Year's celebration for 2010!

The longest, hottest, dustiest AND wettest day EVER: Part II

Muang Khoa to Odomxay to Luang Prabang, All over Laos
April 14, 2010

We balanced our way across the river and started to trek to the bus station for our next leg: Muang Khoa to Odomxay. Yet another bump in our road: it was the first day of Laos New Year, Pii Mai, and the ATMs were shut down. We had spent all of our extra money on the visas such and were penniless. Another aspect of Pii Mai, that is not so fun when you are trying to figure out how you will not remain stuck in a small Lao village, is that the entire basis of the holiday is a nationwide water fight. Literally everyone in the country drops everything for 3 days and engages in water wars to combat the heat and celebrate the new year. Let's just say having little kids dump water on you and squirt you with squirt guns and throw water balloons at you when you're carrying a huge backpack and have just experienced the worst bus ride of your life is not as fun as it sounds :)

We were able to hitch a ride to the bus station in the back of a pick up truck (as it was farther away than we thought) and approached the bus ticket guy. Basically there was 1 bus at the station, which reminded me of some abandoned building in a hippie commune with it's setting in the middle of a forest and plants crawling through it's broken windows. Anyway we went up to the man and tried to explain (in broken English and Thai--Lao is very similar to Thai) that we only had enough money for 2 of the 4 of us, but we were willing to give it to him now as a down payment and we would pay the driver as soon as we go to an ATM, etc., etc. Before we could even begin pleading with him he got this huge smile on his face and just goes "No Problem!" He said he would tell the driver to stop at an ATM and told us to keep the money we did have and go get some food from the hut next door. We all felt like crying. This is definitely something that wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world and it put a whole new spin on the day. We, learning from experience, put some shirts on seats on the bus to save our spots and went next door for some much needed sustenance (we hadn't eaten since 5 am and it was now about 10-12 hours later.)

Our spot saving technique worked as the bus ended up being overpacked again (go figure.) This time it was actually a bus and people were sitting on small plastic stools in the middle of the aisles. Other than that the bus ride to Odom was pretty uneventful (YES!), besides the occasional soaked passenger (as it was Pii Mai there were people literally sitting hidden on the sides of the roads and driving by in cars who would chuck water balloons or spray any passing vehicle and if you had a window open you were in for a wet ride!) Everything went as planned: the driver got us there safely, albeit a bit slowly, he brought us to an ATM and we paid him and we got to the bus station. We realized that this trip from Hanoi to Luang Prabang had taken a lot longer than previously thought and rather than prolong it with an overnight in Odom we decided to suck it up and take another bus to Luang Prabang right away.

Everything was going smoothly; we were on a normal bus that wasn't overly crowded, we had air conditioning, we had money in our wallets and food in our stomachs. Then, in the darkness we see another bus on the side of the road and stop--it turns out it had broken down and all these people were stranded. So, after much conversation it was apparently decided that we would take on this slue of passengers who definitely gave off more of a local vibe (i.e. one man brought on a bamboo cage with animals inside while another one walked on with a dog.) We finally arrived in Luang Prabang and had to wake up a sleeping tuk tuk driver to take us into the center of town to an area to go where the guidebook said the most guesthouses were.

It was after 1 am on the first day of the biggest holiday of the year and we were in the town most well-known for it's celebration. Yes, you guessed if folks: we were like 4 Mary and Josephs and there was NO room at the inn. We literally walked around the entire city for over an hour lugging around our lives on our backs. Everyone was so helpful that we met, directing us here and there and telling us to try this and that guesthouse. The problem arose in that there is a nationwide curfew in Laos that means almost everything was shut down by the time we got there and the workers we usually did find were asleep at the front desk or in the lobby and upon waking up informed us that they were all booked. Finally, FINALLY we found a place that would take all 4 of us--it was a bit pricier than our budget was planning on, but at this point in time we had no more energy to keep searching. It had almost been 48 solid hours since we had woken up to leave Hanoi and almost 24 hours since we were leaving the border town earlier that day; in that time we had literally done and experienced it all. And thus concludes the longest, hottest, dustiest day EVER (and then some.) It was time to lay down our heads on the proverbial bed of straw in the barn and deal with whatever came next in the morning.