Sabaidee.
I sit here on our kitchen balcony sipping on an ice cooled Beerlao, watching, in the coolness of the late afternoon sun, people from the neighbourhood cultivating rice in the fields. The women bob around amongst the rice with the obligatory Chinese peaked hats, cutting handfuls at a time, stacking them then tying them into bushels before the men cart them on sticks across their shoulders to a block just behind our house where they will soon be threshed out to collect the precious grains that are the life blood of this region of the world. Meanwhile, another fellow trolls his way through the watery canals that run between each rice plot tending to his bamboo fish traps, attempting to collect whatever fish, eels and frogs happen to use that particular mini aquatic highway.
I am quite astounded at the rate that the water flows through these small brooks. To look out over these rice fields, one would easily assume that the ground is very flat, and yet this water flows, as I guess it must in order to keep it all working, down some unseen slope towards ........somewhere. It would be interesting to know where it all ends up, or even more interesting, where it all comes from! I feel a great urge to offer my assistance, as uninformed and unskilled as it is in the art of rice harvesting, but I am still way too shy. Perhaps when my language skills improve I may be able to explain my curiosity and willingness to take part.
Currently we are on a school holiday for 10 days. Back home, Easter would just have been celebrated. It seems peculiar to be in a country where there is no recognition whatsoever, (officially anyhow), of this festival that has been so much a part of my life in one way or another since I was born. I would have forgotten completely had we not driven past the Korean Christian Church on Sunday, and noted the enormous number of cars parked everywhere, almost blocking the road as seems to be the practice here.
Here however, we are in the beginning stages of celebrating Pii Mai Lao, the Lao New Year. The festival proper begins today and continues for 6 days of partying, drinking, very bad and very loud karaoke, baci, (pronounced baasee), ceremonies and of course the traditional cleansing ritual that means that everyone at some stage is going to end up soaking wet.
Last Thursday, Merrilee and I attended a Lao staff party at VIS, (Vientiane International School). The Lao at VIS work as gardeners, guards, teachers assistants and admin staff and every year they have a Pii Mai celebration on the last day of school before the break. Not all that many of the regular staff attend, but those that do are in for a treat.
We began the afternoon in the covered eating area of the school eating small snacks etc before Merrilee and I were beckoned into the kitchen by the kitchen staff where we partook in a baci ceremony.
A large central silver tower stood in the centre of the table covered with flowers, offerings and a number of long strings which were then held by all the participants. Some short prayers and statements were made by those gathered wishing good fortune before rice and flowers were thrown all around. Then many short pieces of plaited strings were taken from the central tower and everyone moved around the room wishing each other many fortuitous things and making any apologies for any wrong doing that may have happened in the past. This is signified by the tying of the baci strings around the wrists of those you are wishing good fortune. It was a great thing to be involved in and I think the Lao staff were thrilled that we were there.
Then the fun began.
The beer started to flow extremely freely followed by the splashing of water. Traditionally, especially to elders, a small cuplet of water is gently poured over the hands and shoulder to cleanse away the things of the past year I guess. Well the niceties very soon went out the window and pandemonium took over the proceedings. Buckets of water, sometimes filled with ice, were heaved over anyone and everyone. In order to keep the water coming, a large tub was placed in the centre of the covered area with a hose running continuously into it. Watching the Laos kitchen staff who on the whole are very quiet humble people, go completely nuts is pretty damn amusing. From hardly saying a word, to jumping up on tables and picking up people and dumping them in the water tub, all within a couple of bottles of Beerlao.....priceless. Before long of course, the entire cafeteria eating area was almost ankle deep in water. Fortunately not too much of the pig on a spit ended up in it......may have been a bit ugly.
Merrilee and I finally called it quits and bid our farewells totally soaked to the bone. Although just one more tummy slide on the floor the length of the cafeteria before we left was of course a necessity.
We are now officially into the Pii Mai festival, so what we witnessed in the school cafeteria was just a tiny taste of what we can expect over the coming week. The whole country goes completely bananas. Every conceivable design of water pistol can be seen on sale at anything from large department stores to a guy sitting on the back of a broken down truck tending to his goats.
As it turns out.......this festival is indeed nuts.
We spent an afternoon in the city with some friends of ours squirting anyone and everyone that passed by.
After finally making our way into the city, which took forever....the traffic was almost at a standstill, (at which point we got soaked by a bunch of revelers with buckets of water heaved through our open car windows!!), we drank beer on the side of the road with buckets, bottles, bowls and water pistols filled withed iced water and became a part of the crazy procession that slowly moves down the streets. Utes loaded with sometimes 10 or more people, cars, trucks, motorcycles, tuktuks...... Anyone that was on the streets was absolutely soaked to the bone and smiling from ear to ear. Of course there was the odd dye tainted water bomb or flour bomb just to make things a little more messy as well.
This craziness continued in the streets for several days, which whilst being a lot of fun, made it very difficult to just get around the place in order to buy something at the shop. Wandering to the market to get a small bag of veggies meant putting your phone into a plastic bag and making sure you had some dry footwear to change into when you get home.
On the last day of celebrations, I walked up to the corner of our little goat track armed with a few bottles of Beerlao and introduced myself to a small group of locals having a party on the side of the road. I spoke no Lao and they spoke no English, but the beer flowed freely and much merriment was had. It would seem I have finally come to terms with the Lao tradition of drinking beer with ice. With the lack of refrigeration in many areas, it's the only way to have cold beer, and in the end......that's all that matters. Every passing vehicle was stopped, beer offered, (this ended up being my job), and water splashed over the occupants.....sometimes respectfully......sometimes not. Needless to say, our standing in the local neighbourhood has gone up another notch.
Sok Dee Pii Mai
I will endeavour to bring at least one strange sight each post.
Here is number 1.
