Luang Prabang (Days 31 to 33)

If Bangkok has its redshirt protests, Luang Prabang has it's water fights. It just so happened that the three days we spent in Luang Prabang were the three days of the Laotian New Year. As a nice touch, our hotel presented us all with garlands of flowers to wear.

Their celebrations seem to consist of nothing more than water fights in the street that last from lunch until late into the evening. Some people use large water pistols, but most just use bowls to dip into a barrel and throw water over anyone they can catch. Yet others stand at the side of the road with a hosepipe. Pick-up trucks and vans, packed with people, drive up and down the streets, throwing water at everyone on the pavements and, in turn, being soaked by the bystanders. Before too long, everyone is completely drenched, but it doesn't stop them going on for hours and hours. The fact that a lot of beer is involved, may have something to do with it. Certainly, at times like these, it's more like a drunken Western town on a Saturday night than a small town in a communist country (Luang Prabang only has a population of 50,000).

We all got completely drenched, too, especially on the first night, but the fact that it was very warm meant that it was not only rather refreshing, but also helped to cool you down. The only problem was with cameras, phones, etc., but once we learnt to keep these double-wrapped in polythene bags, we were OK. It was actually a lot of fun, but it did go on for too long.

Luang Prabang is a rather attractive town, right on the Mekong. It used to be the capital of Laos and still retains a lot of French colonial architecture. There are lots of good and inexpensive restaurants, mostly overlooking the Mekong. There's lots of interesting food sold on the streets, but I just stuck with a coffee I found. They call it Tornado and it's black coffee with Kahlua, Baileys and Pastis. Unusual, but quite strong and rather pleasant.

Whilst we were there, we drove out to some local waterfalls, where some of our party swum in the river, but not me. The falls were most attractive, but very busy, because of the New Year holiday. Apparently the water was rather cold, which came as something of a relief to the swimmers, as it was a very hot day.  For some reason, I never like swimming in fresh water so I stayed out.

On the walk up to the falls, we passed a sanctuary for black bears, which are still wild in Laos.
Of course, as everywhere in Indochina, there are lots of temples and pagodas. There's also a cave complex that, surprise, surprise, sports thousands of Buddhas.

One of the more interesting sites, if somewhat disturbing, was seeing the monks receive alms. Every morning at 6am, hundreds of people line the streets to give food, and sometimes money, to the monks. They walk round the pre-defined route in procession, each carrying a metail container in which to receive the food. The people in the street then place food in the monks' containers. Mostly this is sticky rice, which they just deal out by the handful, but there are also other food items, plus sweets and biscuits.  You may be able to see that many of the 'monks' look extremely young.  In fact, they are novices, who seem to join the monastery at something like ten years old.

What I found a bit upsetting is that in places there are groups of people, mostly children, begging for food. As the monks pass, they then give handfuls of rice to some of the beggars. It's all a bit hit and miss, some people seeming to receive lots of rice, others almost nothing. Maybe the monks know who tries to cheat the system. The whole process is conducted in silence and, I suppose, it's a way of redistributing wealth, albeit not very hygienic, with all the rice being passed from person to person by hand.

Talking of wealth, Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia, if not the world, the average annual income being about $1,000. That's why, when buying things in the street, I wouldn't haggle very hard and I know I could sometimes have bought things more cheaply. But a moment's thought reminds you that an extra 50p for me means nothing, but for many of the people selling goods, it may mean the difference between whether or not their children eat that day.  On the other hand, you do see quite a few modern cars on the streets, but it's not at all clear where they get their money from.  They can't all be in the government.

There are several markets in the town, all of which are very busy. Since many of them sell the same range of goods, all at knock-down prices, it's hard to see how they can all make a living, but presumably they do. I couldn't resist taking the picture of the baby in one lady's stall. He wasn't for sale, though!

 Whilst we were in Luang Prabang, there was a visit from the Vietnamese prime minister.  This wouldn't have bothered us, except that we got stuck in traffic and had to wait for twenty minutes in an open Tuck Tuck (motor cycle drawn carriage) surrounded by motor bikes who would just not turn their engines off, meaning that we had to sit in horrendous fumes all the time we were waiting.