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| Esther and I on the beach covered in water and flour! |
Happy Laos New Year!! Possibly my best and most favourite new year of my life. Laos celebrates its new year with lots of water, colours, and flour, oh and some religious and family elements too. The families of and around Luang Prabang team up and gather outside their homes to throw water at any passersby. They are very well prepared with water guns, hoses, big buckets, and even evil ice buckets to make the water super chilled. Each little suburb or family group get matching tshirts printed up to mark out their gang and create a bit of extra competition. The water symbolises cleansing before entering into the new year, and then coloured paint and water gets thrown into the mix for fun. This lasts for days and days, and when you finally think they must have got bored of it, oh no!, you get soaked again!!
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| Making the sandy stupa on the beach |
The owner and family of the hostel I was staying at invited us hostel guests to join in with the merriment and so we all headed over as one big team through the town and to the beach on the other side of the river for further new year festivities and traditions. We made it to the beach side completely soaked, covered in paint and flour (the flour and water made a grim paste in my hair but still a great lol), then we helped the family to build a sandy stupa decorated with flour, flowers, and flags. It was so lovely to be part of such a special and personal moment of the Laos people. We then cracked open an obligatory Beer Laos and danced along to a local band in the sandy mud under a sprinkler. Good times for sure!
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| A Laos family enjoying a feast at the Kuang Si waterfalls on the eve of the main, watery, new year, beach event. |
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| Kuang Si waterfalls. Just divine. |
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