Last Morning In Laos

Songkran had started (although technically the Laos new year starts on the 14th. Songkran is Thai, in Laos they call it Bun Pi Mai)

I decided to skip the monks this morning and sleep in until 7. But I made sure to walk to the morning market again and order an espresso from my coffee place which poured a mean Laotian Espresso.

At 9am the town was hosting a ceremony where they had elephants walk through town to the temple. A little before 9am five elephants walked through town with hundreds of tourists trying for good photos. It was very cool to watch. 

After that I checked out of my hotel and arranged a tuk tuk to pick me up at 4:30pm. I watched the first rough cut of The Stranded Pilot in the lobby. And then I went for lunch. As I started out I noticed people walking around with water guns. So I returned and made sure I had the plastic casing for my phone. I’m REALLY glad I did this.

On my way to lunch I crossed this main intersection and a little girl came up to me and dumped a bucket of water in my shoes. Her mother poured water down my neck. I had to laugh, they laughed too. I ordered lunch at a cafe and watched the water wars begin. This was only a small taste of what I’d see the next two days in Chiang Mai.

I went back to the hotel, changed into dry clothes and got in the back of a tuk tuk. 

BUT THE TUK TUK DRIVER HEADED FOR THE WATER FIGHT INTERSECTION!

I thought I’d be okay since I was in a kind of covered tuk tuk like yesterday. Harder to get me.

But nope… since the back was completely open, someone came up behind the truck as we went through the intersection and threw a whole bucket of water onto me in my new clothes and yelled “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” My backpack was soaked too… luckily my laptop was not.

So… THAT’S HOW YOU WANNA PLAY IT???

I arrived to the airport a little wet, but feeling very good. Oh, and even if you fly Economy on Bangkok Airways, you get a lounge!

I wouldn’t call it the Star Alliance lounge, but they had coffee and brownies!

I wrote an ode to Luang Prabang as we took off. I will surely miss this place. 

You can see the main part of town below, 

where the two rivers meet.

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Luang Prabang— Once the capital of Laos, the French withdrew in 1953 but they left behind their cafes, window shutters, and balconies. And though the United States dropped more bombs — many of which have yet to detonate— on Laos in the 60’s and 70’s than in all of Europe in WWII, I hear only peace: Where the Nam Khan river pays tribute to the Mekong, each morning before dawn the city rises to make offerings to the monks in silence. When you start your day like this, and continue to the morning market for mangos and coffee and coconut rice cakes, it’s not a wonder why your narrow streets—which murmur and do not bustle— beckon the heart to meander before settling into its bedrock. The air is hazy as farmers burn their land in preparation for the monsoon season, weeks away, to renew their crop. “The land of a million elephants” now has less than 800. I walked with five of them on the morn of the Lao new year. In the afternoon a little girl comes up to me and pours a bucket full of water into my shoes and says, “Happy New Year.” I count my resolutions carefully. At night, the murmur dims to make room for thoughts, the cafes close early— there is another offering to be made again tomorrow— and strings of light shimmer off the river. The stones in the temple sidewalks also absorb the faint glow in the night silence, and I try to do the same when I close my eyes as the plane sweeps me away into the air.

A post shared by christiandurso (@christiandurso) on Apr 13, 2019 at 5:11am PDT