to my brother eli, whose birthday is today. may this year be better than ever.
was this restaurant. we passed it every time we went into the center of the city. I love all the plants, and the collage-like construction method.
the last of the Lao PDR polaroids.
hello and thanks again to everyone we met and hung out with. you can check out where we stayed in Vientiane at www.hbrm.com (cut and paste this link, sorry) it was truly lovely.
a zine of the 35mm photos I took while we were in Laos will be available shortly, info here once it's done.
I love a hand painted sign.
welcome to the Lao New Year. It is hard to fully communicate the experience, but I will try. This is Tenq . Hey Tenq, hope all is good with you!
So....this holiday, it's all about water. I am going off of the page in Lonely Planet and the explanations I was given by people over there, some details might be totally messed up.
water and parties.
the festival lasts for 5 days, or seven, or two, depending on if you are speaking of partying or whether the bank is open. The first day of Pi Mai we were graciously invited to a luncheon for the hotel workers in the back garden. strings were tied on our wrists for luck. this is related to the baasi string ceremony and is some kind of buddhist/spirit worship combo that I don't fully understand but it was so kind and sweet and awesome, just like everyone who worked at our hotel.
here Vath and Noi are making tasty lunch items. Hi! Thanks again for cooking! Btw, Vath is in the market for an american husband, if anyone is interested. I'd certainly have to vet you first though, so assholes, keep dreaming. UPDATE: Tenq has just emailed me to say "she also want for falang husband"....same vetting principles apply.
"all about water" involves water (a LOT of water) and things made with water like....beer.
a lot of beer.
I took so many polaroids but ended up giving most of them away, there are some killer shots from this lunch and pi mai in general that are up on people's walls or fridges in vientiane. Your loss but their gain.
so water. in the mornings (mostly) people go to the temples and bring offerings and wash the buddhas. that weird bouncy castle polaroid with the fake teletubbies from a week or so back? That was set up in the the courtyard of the temple for the festival. There is all sorts of tasty food being made and a general happy celebratory atmosphere. I ate some weird bright green fried thing that looked really scary but I think it was just flower-shaped sticky rice, and I kept digging in the plastic bag to grab another one, trying to not think about how bad the hot plastic bag was for me. I ate at least five.
madame and tenq
okay, so....how do I properly convey this holiday? and the water thing. Alright, so everyone is partying. They are setting up giant sound systems and having dance parties, they are drinking cases and cases AND CASES of beer. They are going down to the banks of the mekong to drink more beer and dance more to live bands. there are grandpas shaking it to weird lao pop. and the water. the water water everywhere. I bought that giant super soaker so we could participate, because the whole country is a water fight for the week.
mostly this involves huge crews of people standing by the road/lane/alley, partying and waiting for people to walk/ride/drive by, who then get soaked, via hose or bucket or water balloons (ie a tied plastic bag). This is for luck in the new year, so you are not allowed to get mad about it. it is taken to a really serious level, and I never saw anyone get mad, EVEN WHEN PEOPLE WERE OPENING THE DRIVERS' SIDE DOOR OF TRUCKS TO SPRAY THE DRIVER INSIDE WITH A HOSE FOR LIKE 3 MINUTES STRAIGHT. that would never fly over in the states.
there are giant parties everywhere, and there are also pick-up trucks with the back filled with students or posses of friends, and they have their music going and their coolers of beer and their buckets of water and stashes of water balloons (often filled with colored water) and they are hitting everyone they can. for luck!
it's the only time during our visit that we got called out for being foreigners, kids on the back of dad's scooter would yell "falang falang!" and hit us with their water gun and we would hit them back. Everyone REALLY wanted to get us wet because it is some special thing I guess, or maybe it's just because Laotians are really kind people who want to increase everyone's good fortune and feel bad for falangs who have never had this kind of luck before. So we were basically soaked for days straight, but it was so hot it felt awesome.
these are the super nice university students we partied with for an afternoon.
But I feel I haven't fully conveyed the extent of the hardcoredness of this holiday. Because you are drinking and dancing to music and throwing buckets of water at every person or car that passes by, and then somebody gets out the lipstick and they are drawing on your cheeks with the lipstick, then someone has baby powder or flour and so that goes into your hair and everybody's hair. and flowers get picked and put in your hair or tied to your car and then another truck goes by and suddenly your white shirt is pink and you are yelling and laughing. Even though everyone was incredibly hammered, I never saw a single fight or situation that seemed about to turn violent, a testament to the "middle path" buddhist concept everyone is working towards in Laos.
One night when it seemed like the holiday was finally over, we dressed up and went for a ride on the scooter to have a fancy french dinner, and avoided getting hit by the sparse crowds of partiers still going six days later. We were really psyched to have remained dry, and in the dark we turned into the little lane leading to our hotel, and there was a posse of 12 year olds partying and they stopped our scooter and put glasses of beer to our lips and made us drink as they poured buckets of water down our necks, rubbing our backs and saying "good luck for the lao new year" and we said thank you and "sabaidee pi mai" and drove off into the night.
here I am showering Tenq with luck.
you should really go to laos.
the creepiest statuary in vientiane, outside a bookstore.
this is the 400th entry for dokuchan. for many years I kept intending to make a portfolio site (and still do, eventually it will happen) but then I stumbled upon the urban honking posse and after a long wait I was jumped in with much ceremony and blood and given the keys to my own tiny kingdom. 2007 has been a study in extreme highs and lows, so far, and when I am super down it makes me feel better, to root around in my photo stacks and figure out what to upload and inflict on the general public. so thank you, dear mysterious readers (viewers? I don't really write things beyond titles or a brief description of the picture) for taking the time to stop by and check out what's going on in my adventures in high contrast living.
on the roof of this old bug was a splendid portrait of Che.
big love to all the moms (buddha's mom too)
I heard tell the liquor in those bottles is good.
is really big and so is this guy
this nice man was hanging out near the lao womens' union sign
laos polaroid series....ongoing for the foreseeable future...I took a lot of polaroids.
roasted banana and other treats outside the Talat Sao (morning market)
lao pdr
