An English teacher's blog about his travels and his digital art.
After the last post of April 15th, the next day I went into Vientiane to take in a few other places, a temple (wat) and one of the few restaurants that were open. Rather than post a lot of individual photos, I ran all my videos through the DaVinci Resolve editor and made one fairly short 10 minute video. You can watch it below. Enjoy.
Pi (pee) Mai (my) Laos translates into Happy Laos New Year, which occurred last week from about April 13th through the 18th. The official observance was from the 14th through the 17th, according to the government, with the New Year day on the 15th. I usually go out to Nai’s sister’s house near the Mekong River about 8 km from my house, an easy ride out. The celebration includes house cleaning, sprinkling and washing the Buddha statues at the various temples (wats) throughout the country, water play (a lot of it) among friends and family with buckets of water and high-powered super squirt guns, and eating and drinking, a lot of that too. Which category do I fall into? Probably visit friends, clean my house (a usual daily chore anyway, no holiday necessary), and drinking too much?? beer Lao. But not too much!
It’s mostly a fun time and it occurs during the hottest time of the year, so the water play is usually welcome. Some foreigners living in Laos hate Pi Mai, but mostly don’t mind it or actually enjoy it. Me? I mostly like it. Here are a few images from this year’s celebration.
These photos are from the 15th, when I went out to the farm along the village. Click on them 2 or 3 times to see a full size view. Below is a photo of Nai’s farm, which is usually tended by Nui.
This very new road, opened in January, out to the villages along the Mekong River was a great revelation. The old road was one of the worst around this area that you could travel on. It was a nightmare during rainy season, with no street lights, severely pot-holed, dangerous at night. This new one is great, lit with street lights and very smooth all the way out to the village where I’m going and beyond, traveling along the river all the way to Vientiane.
The new road out to the villages along the Mekong River.
Now, about the water play. Despite the great road, I’m sure I’ll get somewhat wet going out to the village. Here’s what I have to look forward to! However, I didn’t get too wet going out there, but coming back later in the evening was horrible. I got soaked, my glasses got wet ( I couldn’t put down my motorbike helmet visor because it has a dark tint), and I don’t see that well at night. I made it home OK, though.
Not looking forward to this.
OK, I got to Nui’s house without too many water problems. Here are a few of the people who were there and a look at the food we ate, along with the ubiquitous Beer Lao.
Here’s Nui along with her friend, Ms. Tia, from the neighborhood.
Nui and Tia.
This is another of Nai’s sisters, Lot, in the blue dress, with her girlfriend, Bui.
Lot and Bui.
Here Lot and Bui enjoy a little water play.
Lot and Bui enjoy some water play.
This cute young boy of about 3 1/2 years old was given to Nai and Nui by one of Nai’s nieces to look after until he’s grown up, not an unusual practice among some Lao people.
Young boy Ai (pronounced eye)
Here’s some of the food we ate. Plenty to go around for all.
Some of the food we ate.
Here’s one of my favorite Laos foods, grilled fish from the river. Yum!
More of the food, including my favorite, grilled fish.
Lot, Bui, and Ai play in the water from a hose. Looks like they’re having fun.
Lot, Bui, and Ai play in the water from a hose.
Oh-oh. Lot has a bucket full of water and she’s heading straight for me. However, she only got me wet a little bit and doled out wetness to the others around the table. This happened quite often, though, with Ai being the chief perpetrator.
Lot with a full bucket of water.
That’s all for the time I spent out at Nai’s sister’s house. The next day I went into Vientiane to check out the celebrations. I do that in the next post. I’ve also made quite a few posts from past Pi Mais. You can do a search in the search box, but here are ones from 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021. That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more later.
P.S. Oddly enough, I didn’t get any photos of Nai. I think he was mostly in back doing the cooking. Oh, well, sorry Nai. If your curious, you can see him in the 2016 and 2017 photos by clicking on the links above.
The Laotian Times reported that the first-ever aquarium is proposed for Vientiane. Wow, that’ll be so awesome if it’s done. The Times says that
Once completed, the facility will serve as a major education and tourism hub. It will provide learning opportunities for students, support research activities, and contribute to the conservation of endangered aquatic species. The project will mark the first aquarium of its kind in Laos.
You can read the entire article here.
Right now, the first day of the Laos New Year holiday (I’ll post about that later.), with maximum temperatures being at or near 39-40 C. (102-104 F) for the last couple of weeks, an aquarium evokes feelings of calm and coolness in me, but I think it will be quite awhile before it is realized. So, along with everyone else, I’ll just have to wait patiently.
Yeah, it’s been a long time between posts. Sorry about that. I’ve been thinking about shutting the blog down after doing it for over 22 years, but I’ll keep on posting and trying to do it more regularly. So here goes.
It’s that time of the year in Laos and, I suppose, most of Southeast Asia–hot, hot, hot! The forecast is for highs of 40C or more for the next week, at least. That’s about 104F. We’re not into the monsoon season yet, so it’ll probably remain hot for quite awhile. I’m certainly not looking forward to it, but what’ll you do except crank up the air conditioner. Luckily, my workplace, Vientiane College, has building-wide air conditioning and I’ve got a small a.c. in my house which keeps us cool. Still, it’s not a pleasant time of year
Laos New Year (Pi Mai Lao) is in a couple of weeks, and one of its features is water play, where folks get out and toss water around at others or fire off super-powered squirt guns. It’s all in fun and the cool water feels nice, but it still doesn’t relieve the heat. Oh, well, gotta put up with it.
OK, a short post, but at least it’s a start. More later.
Typhoon Wipha, now a tropical storm and soon to be a depression, is tracking north of us and is supposed to bring heavy rain to our area, maybe on the order of three inches or so. Yuk, just when my front yard was beginning to dry out from previous heavy rain. But, good luck to others who will probably be more heavily impacted than I. Here’s a full report from the Mekong River Commission, whose headquarters is in Vientiane.
As of 7 AM today, Tropical Storm WIPHA was centered around 21.3°N, 109.9°E—just off the northern coast of China’s Leizhou Peninsula, about 220 km east of Quang Ninh–Hai Phong (Viet Nam). The storm is bringing strong winds of 75–88 km/h and is moving west-southwest at 15–20 km/h.
🔜 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟮𝟰 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: The storm is expected to strengthen as it moves west-southwest into the Northern Gulf of Tonkin, picking up speed to 20–25 km/h.
🔜 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟰𝟴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: It may weaken into a Tropical Depression over land in Thanh Hoa–Nghe An (Viet Nam), moving west-southwest at 10–15 km/h.
🔜 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟳𝟮 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: The system will likely continue weakening into a Low Pressure Area as it moves over northern Lao PDR.
📅 𝟮𝟮–𝟮𝟰 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗠𝗕:
Widespread heavy rain is expected in the upper parts of Lao PDR and Thailand, with daily rainfall of 80–150 mm, and locally exceeding 200 mm. On 23 July, some areas in northern Lao PDR could see very heavy rainfall, ranging from 140–200 mm and possibly over 250 mm in some spots.
📍 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲:
🇱🇦 Northern Lao PDR: Bokeo, Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Sayabouly, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamsai, Khammouane
🇹🇭 Northern Thailand: Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai
🇰🇭 Cambodia: Southwestern areas and the 3S Basin (Sekong, Sesan, Srepok)
⚠️ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁: Heavy to very heavy rain may trigger flash floods, river overflows, and flooding, especially between 23–24 July. Please follow updates and local authority instructions.
Today, July 10th, marks the beginning of the Buddhist Lent period, or Boun Khao Phansa, which lasts for approximately three months. It’s the time when Buddhist monks return to their home temples, there to stay for the length of the period to study, meditate and reflect for spiritual renewal. It happens on the first day after the full moon of the eighth lunar month and marks the beginning of the three-month rainy season. Well, the rainy season this year seems to have begun much earlier, and it’s been raining most of the morning. It’s been raining here since June and my yard at my house has been flooded for at least the past ten days, making it difficult to go jogging in the morning without getting my shoes soaked.
Anyway, at the end of the three-month period, on Boun Ok Phansa day, Lent finishes. The day after that is the final day of the Vientiane Boat Racing festival.
I’ve posted before about the start of the Lent period here, and here. Although it’s not an official national holiday, quite a few businesses shut down, especially local small mom-and-pop vendors.
Here’s a photo, taken this morning, of Nai preparing a goodie basket for the monks at a nearby temple. Most merit-makers include sweets in their baskets. I kid Nai that he’s going to make the monks fat. But, most people, including Nai, also include cooked rice and other food, like fruit, in their offerings to the monks.
Nai has a small shrine inside the house. He lit some candles and prayed to Buddha before he left for the temple. This evening he’ll probably light a bunch of candles on the porch and add some goodies to the outside shrine he also has.
Yes, rainy season has arrived in force in Laos. Many villages and towns have been inundated and flooded, if they’re near a river. I haven’t heard of any deaths, but there may have been a few, although nothing catastrophic. It seems, though, that the entire country has been hit quite hard by recent rainfall.
As for me, I’ve been unable to leave my house to go jogging in the mornings without getting my shoes soaked. For a week now, my yard has been under water, more or less, but today the water receded enough for me to get out and get some running in. It had started to recede earlier in the week, but when it did, we’d get hit with another torrential, overnight storm. Not much fun.
And this is just the start. Rainy season will usually run from now until the middle of October, so I suppose I can look forward to other periods of jogging being postponed due to a flooded yard. Sheesh. Here’s a view of the yard before the water went down. Of course, I shouldn’t complain too much. Compared to folks whose villages have flooded and whose houses are underwater, I guess I’m not too bad off. More later.
Here’s a new piece of digital art that I made just experimenting with various filters and textures in Photoshop. This is a view of the largely ceremonial Presidential Mansion, which is rarely used, in Vientiane, Laos from the top of the Patuxai Monument looking down Lane Xang avenue. Not my best effort, but at least I’ve got something to post after such a long layoff. Enjoy.
Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful, happy day, and also, in advance, have a Happy New Year.
Today in Laos it’s a nice 76 fahrenheit (24 celsius) at around 11 a.m. No snow, but plenty of sunshine. LOL Christmas isn’t a huge celebration here, but plenty of people celebrate the season and there are plenty of decorations in various businesses, but no religious connotations. Still, it’s nice. Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I’m sitting at home on a Monday morning, listening to the rain patter down, but there are no Monday blues here. We’re at the start of a month-long break between the second and third terms at Vientiane College, a break which started last Wednesday and continues through September 11th. I don’t have any specific plans for the time off, but I’ll probably pop over to Nong Khai in Thailand for at least a few days of shopping and relaxing. I also want to make a few videos of some places just down the road from my house, namely Buddha Park (Wat Xieng Khouane Luang) and the Lao National Ethnic Cultural Park. I was going to visit those areas today, but with the current rainfall, I’ll save those visits for another day. I also need to see (no pun intended) an ophthalmologist to get my eyes checked and to get a new pair of glasses. The temple pieces have broken on the pair I have now and are being held on with short bent pieces of a paper clip running through the screw holes. Looks weird, but works and I only wear them when I’m on my motorbike.
The rain is fairly gentle right now, but it was coming down more heavily a while ago. When it’s really pouring, I have to keep an eye on the ceiling in the bedroom because it drips occasionally, though not too often, maybe once or twice during the rainy season. I have to remember to get the landlord to do some repairs, though he’s often out of town.
That’s it for now, so enjoy your Monday wherever you are. More later.
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