Pi Mai Continues

In a scene that can only be called pandemonium a Lao parade marched down the main drag of Luang Prabang.  Lining the parade were hundreds of people packed tightly together with a mix of traditional Lao and what can only be described as Rave type music.  Water being thrown everywhere even on the police lining the actual procession.  The main attraction was Miss Lao who was sitting on a giant float which was in the shape of an elephant.  She sat under an umbrella holding a wooden gun and a wooden pick.  Surrounding her were many of the runners up in the Miss Lao contest all at the feet of the elephant laying down flower pedals as the parade marched on.  She was at the end of a long parade which had participants of all ages and all types of floats. It was a sight to see and as soon as she had passed thats when the chaos started.  The water wars got into full force with the roving gangs in trucks.  Not only water gets thrown there is red, green, and orange Gatorade that gets thrown along with flour that may get rubbed on your face if you are not careful.  This creates a scene where people are walking around covered in red, green, sometimes black dye and flour while shooting water guns or pooring buckets of water on their neighbor.  everyone gets involved from the 20 something foreigners (obviously) to the 70 something grandmothers walking slowly with a bucket and a small cup pouring gracefully.  The drinks flow and the music blasts, people eat, sing and dance and eventually pass out only to get things started for two more days.  Something for everyone to experience once but hope that Pi Mai lands on a Friday so there are only three days of chaos not five.