Pi Mai water festival

I've come to realise that all the guest house owners and tuk-tuk drivers will sell you weed if you show even the slightest interest. Its so funny with the tuk-tuks. The first question is do we want a tuk-tuk, the next is automatically do you want weed. I guess its obviously the natural progression from asking if you want to be driven somewhere. Why don't our taxi drivers in Ireland not ask us these questions? We are now in Luan Prabang, a lovely town with loads of character and charm and beautiful sights. Of course I haven't seen any of it. We have been too busy soaking people on the main street of the town. Ah yes, the Lunar New Year I was talking about. In Thailand its called Songkran, here in Laos its called Pi Mai. Its all the same though. We have just spent 3 days soaking people and getting soaked. It is the best festival that I have ever, ever been involved in. Its fantastic. I couldn't possibly do it justice in description but I'll try. Early morning is calm, about 11 o'clock a small group will start throwing buckets of water at passing cars and tuk-tuks. From then on most shops close down and stay closed until around 6. Between that time the whole town comes out onto the streets and goes crazy. Its absolutely mental. It like nothing else I've seen. Even if you don't want to get wet, your going to. In fact for those who are dry, its like aneon sign saying "wet me", and everyone duly obliges. You can't do anything around town because you know that you are going to be drenched. I broke my camera on the first day so I have no photos of me and everyone else covered in oil and flour, which appeared on the second day. Before you leave this world you ahve to get to Luan Prabang for the 14, 15 and 16 April. Crazy, crazy, crazy!!!! i'm so pissed off that I can't show you the photos. it would really have given you an idea of just how mad the fun was. i guess you are just going to have to use your imagination this time.