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!
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!
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