Beyond the communists and the monks, the rest of the parade was a bit hard to figure out. The line between spectators and participants was very blurred, as everyone knows everyone so the two groups were always stopping to chat with one another. The one theme I remember was vegetables, as each town in the district sent a delegation, and they each chose their favorite vegetable and carried a big plastic replica of said vegetable down the street. Apparently that wasn't that photogenic because I don't have any photos of it, so I've left you instead with the usual assortment of hill tribes, elephants, a man paddling a boat down the street, etc. You get the idea.

Some more communists, although the youngest ones seem to be a bit less organized than their older comrades.

We stayed at the Phou Vao Hotel, which as far as I can tell has changed beyond all recognition. It was a large, modern hotel built outside of town on a mountain slope. It was about a ten minute walk into town, which for Luang Prabang is about as long a walk as it's possible to take before falling into the river. It has since been taken over by the Pansea chain, which is a small chain of boutique hotels in out of the way Asian locations. From the photos of the place, it looks like they've completely gutted it and made it much more high end, so I won't be rating the old Phou Vao.

On our first morning in Luang Prabang, as we were walking into town, we came across a huge Songkran market/festival pictured here. Luang Prabang is the focus of Songkran celebrating in Laos, so the town was swollen with visitors and very festive. Somchai is standing next to a selection of tungs for sale, which all the kids carried around with them during the holiday, as Somchai did when he was a toddler in Baan Mae. Tungs should have your astrological animal on them depending on the year you're born (he's a rabbit) and represent a ladder to heaven. They also have some Buddhist moral lessons for kids to help them on their way. Kids seem to enjoy them, much more than I would if someone gave me a flag full of biblical quotes to play with for Christmas.

Laos April '00

As you know by now, I generally hate Songkran, the Thai New Year festival that involves throwing water at strangers for a week. So this Songkran, we escaped to nearby Laos, so we could get soaked by Laotians rather than Thais. We spent close to a week in Laos, a couple days in the capital, Vientiane, followed by several more in Luang Prabang.

I noticed I've been ending my last posts at each holiday with a variation of "I can't wait to go back", so Laos is a good oppportunity to break that pattern, and end with a "never again" instead. It's not that it's a horrible place, it's just that a week in Laos is more than enough time to explore its limited charms. A quick summary of the place: poorest country in Asia, population about 6 million, with less than 10 % living anywhere near a road, completely landlocked and mountainous. Originally a separate Thai kingdom like Lanna in northern Thailand, it gradually grew apart culturally and linguistically so it's like Thailand, only different (and much poorer). It got tossed around among various countries, became a puppet state controlled by Thailand, then became a French colony. Became independent after World War II, got embroiled in the Vietnam War, Communists took over and imprisoned (and later killed) the royal family. Laos then carpetbombed repeatedly by the Americans. More bombs fell in tiny Laos than in all of Europe during the second world war, still holds the record for the most bombed out country and still full of unexploded bombs and land mines. Communists continue to run the place, ensuring that the unlucky country will continue to widen the gap with the next poorest Asian country. So let's go exploring!

A couple of photos from the top of the complex, showing the main temple building which is supposed to be Mt. Meru, where the Hindu gods live. One interesting feature of this temple is there are fifteen doorways (where you see some monks in the photo above) and on Songkran, the Thai new year celebration I talked about hundreds of posts ago so I'm sure you remember, the sun shines straight through the all fifteen doors at sunrise.

Here are some more photos of Wat Changlom. As you can probably see, the temple was rocked by an earthquake a long time ago, so I don't think there's a straight line in the whole place. But there are lots of atmospheric ruins to walk around.

Thailand's new year falls in April, and is called Songkran. Chiang Mai is considered ground zero for the celebration, and it's something everyone should do once, and only once. Songkran celebrations used to revolve around pouring water on your elders' hands as a mark of respect, but it has deteriorated into an all out water war, with groups riding around on pickup trucks with barrels of water to pour on passers by, and everyone has a water rifle to attack all comers with. The party (and it is a party, as everyone is drunk the whole week) is attended with gusto by foreign visitors, and popular backpacker hangouts like Khao San Road in Bangkok, or pretty much all of Chiang Mai, are crazy.