While we were in Vang Vieng, Laos celebrated their new year with a three day public holiday known as the Water Festival. What this means is that everyone, everywhere will get wet.
The official public holiday was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. However, the festivities began several days earlier. On every road and every street corner children and families gather with various means of soaking anyone who happens by – whether on foot, car, or motorbike. Children and adults alike had water guns, buckets to toss or dump on heads, hoses, and large barrels filled with water to resupply. Pickup trucks drive around with 10+ people dancing in the back, all throwing water and hosing anyone they see. No one was safe, not even people just arriving in taxis.
Basically our entire time in Vang Vieng we had to wear our swim suits all day and leave anything that shouldn’t get wet at home. Literally it was quite impossible to walk 50 feet out of your guest house without getting soaked.
By the second or third day of the festival (the water had been going on for 4+ days by now), things got even crazier as people had bought more and more water guns and started filling them with colored water (red, green, etc.). It was also common to have flour dumped on your head, forming a nice sort of dripping white coating. Another favorite was to bring the blackened pots out of the house and use the soot to put black war paint on anyone who didn’t already have some.
This was our life, from morning to dawn. That is, when I was not in the room nursing my toe.
The public holiday did cause a bit of inconvenience. While in Vientiane, we had to organize our visa for entrance into Vietnam. Unlike some countries, it has to be arranged in advance (as opposed to on entry), and the only place to do so is in the capitol city, as this is where the Vietnam embassy is located. We arrived in Vientiane the weekend before the water festival week, and were shocked to find out the embassies were closed THE ENTIRE WEEK.
This was going to put a serious kink into our plans, as we would have to come all the way back to Vientiane (11 hour bus ride on windy roads) the following week before going to Vietnam. Somehow, after asking several travel agents if there was a way, we lucked into finding some Vietnamese agents. They apparently had friends at the embassy and were able to arrange the visa for us on Monday while technically closed. Lucky us.
Is the water safe to drink there? If not, sounds like you could get sick really easily. Sounds like a blast, though – like everyone’s in high spirits for a week.
Bummer to hear about the visa issue, but glad you were lucky enough to get it worked out!
This was very interesting. What an excuse to wear a bathing suit all the time.
I understand about the delay between the actual events and your posts. That’s a good idea. You’ll soon be over the ocean headed back to the States. We’ll be interested in reading your posts about the last parts of your travels.
No I wouldn’t drink the water in just about any country I have been in (Singapore the exception). However, I wouldn’t expect any problems from coming into contact with it if you aren’t gulping it down.
5 Comments »
Comment by josh — April 26, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
While we were in Vang Vieng, Laos celebrated their new year with a three day public holiday known as the Water Festival. What this means is that everyone, everywhere will get wet.
The official public holiday was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. However, the festivities began several days earlier. On every road and every street corner children and families gather with various means of soaking anyone who happens by – whether on foot, car, or motorbike. Children and adults alike had water guns, buckets to toss or dump on heads, hoses, and large barrels filled with water to resupply. Pickup trucks drive around with 10+ people dancing in the back, all throwing water and hosing anyone they see. No one was safe, not even people just arriving in taxis.
Basically our entire time in Vang Vieng we had to wear our swim suits all day and leave anything that shouldn’t get wet at home. Literally it was quite impossible to walk 50 feet out of your guest house without getting soaked.
By the second or third day of the festival (the water had been going on for 4+ days by now), things got even crazier as people had bought more and more water guns and started filling them with colored water (red, green, etc.). It was also common to have flour dumped on your head, forming a nice sort of dripping white coating. Another favorite was to bring the blackened pots out of the house and use the soot to put black war paint on anyone who didn’t already have some.
This was our life, from morning to dawn. That is, when I was not in the room nursing my toe.
The public holiday did cause a bit of inconvenience. While in Vientiane, we had to organize our visa for entrance into Vietnam. Unlike some countries, it has to be arranged in advance (as opposed to on entry), and the only place to do so is in the capitol city, as this is where the Vietnam embassy is located. We arrived in Vientiane the weekend before the water festival week, and were shocked to find out the embassies were closed THE ENTIRE WEEK.
This was going to put a serious kink into our plans, as we would have to come all the way back to Vientiane (11 hour bus ride on windy roads) the following week before going to Vietnam. Somehow, after asking several travel agents if there was a way, we lucked into finding some Vietnamese agents. They apparently had friends at the embassy and were able to arrange the visa for us on Monday while technically closed. Lucky us.
Comment by Gunder — April 26, 2009 @ 10:43 pm
Is the water safe to drink there? If not, sounds like you could get sick really easily. Sounds like a blast, though – like everyone’s in high spirits for a week.
Bummer to hear about the visa issue, but glad you were lucky enough to get it worked out!
Comment by dadman — April 26, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
Sounds Hilarious!!!
Comment by Clara — April 27, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
This was very interesting. What an excuse to wear a bathing suit all the time.
I understand about the delay between the actual events and your posts. That’s a good idea. You’ll soon be over the ocean headed back to the States. We’ll be interested in reading your posts about the last parts of your travels.
Comment by josh — April 27, 2009 @ 1:13 pm
No I wouldn’t drink the water in just about any country I have been in (Singapore the exception). However, I wouldn’t expect any problems from coming into contact with it if you aren’t gulping it down.
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