The slow and sleepy pace of Vientiane makes you just that. It's sights can probably be seen in just one busy day but what's the rush? They can also be spread out over days with a sight thrown in every now and then between lots of smoothies and Beerlao and just general sit-downs. During the first two days of our visit we frequented some temples at our leisure, as well as the Pathuxai, Vientianes answer to l'Arc de Triomphe which has a plaque on the wall stating that it looks "even less impressive up close" than it does from far away(!?), it's got great views from the top though. The temples were extra colourful on account of the imminent new lunar year. The place was bustling with buddhist monks and devotees putting the final touches to banners, bunting and the like. The excitement in the air was very contagious as we wondered what was in store.
Well we'd heard there'd be water but we never dreamed there'd be quite this much! The lunar new year is celebrated with lots and lots of water here, and not by drinking it either. We managed to make it to breakfast staying relatively dry and then acquired ourselves some super soakers in the hope of some protection. It wasn't long before we accepted the need to upgrade said soakers. On every street, outside every business was a party. Each of these parties had a large tub of water as a centre piece with a hose pumping fresh water into it so that it was always full. Each member of each party had in their possession a bucket of some description. Neither age nor denomination deemed you safe from an absolute soaking as you passed. If your bucket wasn't getting the desired effect then the hose surely did! Grannies passed dripping in water while smiling and wishing "sabaidee pii mai"(happy new year) to her soakers. To bring even more fun to the proceedings scores of pick up trucks circled each block with an army aboard carrying water bombs, hoses and super soakers. Add to this enough Beerlao to quench the thirst of Ireland and you got yourself a hell of a party! By the early afternoon we were completely immersed in the proceedings, unwittingly joining a local party along the way and generally getting as soaked as one can possibly be, and downing Beerlao like locals too. I'd forgotten how much fun a good water fight can be. And this was only day one of the three day celebrations. We wish we had more photos but water and cameras are not good friends.
Day two presented more of the above. We had considered maybe not getting as wet today but it proved a naive thought. Another afternoon of heavy water bombardment later and we were quite exhausted. The Lao revellers, however, showed no sign of weakness and so on the party went... Can this madness really go on for yet another day??? Oh yes it can! Donning the same clothes for the third day in a row we took to the streets once more with only our super soakers as protection. Couldn't get too wet today, we had a 24 hour bus trip to Hanoi to look forward to in the evening. We got soaked!
