I arrived in Vientiane on 19th October 2013 to a rousing sea of people celebrating the end of the month long Buddhist Lent (Boun Awk Phanza). In conjunction with this Lent, there is the Annual Dragon Boat Race Festival (Boun Xuang Heua) along the Mekong River, with its finals held on the 20th October 2013. Besides the boat race, there were beautiful floats sailing along the river complete with music, dancing and singing.
The Mekong riverside was transformed into a carnival site, completely occupied by stalls selling all kinds of everything from clothings, shoes, mobile phones, food, drinks and beverages, cosmetics, games stalls, and toys, etc, etc.
The crowd in town and at the Mekong riverside was just fantastic. I have not seen so many people in Vientiane before, seems like everyone living in Vientiane and other provinces are here. There were merry making - eating and drinking. I believe the air and sound pollution and the sales of the ever popular Beer Lao these few days must have sky-rocketed. People in Laos are easy going, friendly and always celebrating a happy occasion with good food with plenty of Beer Lao.
I am very lucky that my work schedule in Vientiane this time coincided with this very important festival in Vientiane.
