More MORE Lao New Years celebration photos

And it can't officially be a celebration without a parade or two. There was the "official" parade that lasted 10 minutes, and then there were the unofficial ones that lasted for 3-4 days. Other than the monk processions and the costumed dancers, there weren't too many differences. There was plenty of water throwing at both, and people drove up and down the streets multiple times to splash and be splashed.








It seemed to be really popular to run around with cooking woks and smearing the grease from them on peoples faces. This guy had it perfected to an art form.


And nobody, not tourists, not locals, not grandmas, not crotchity old white fat tourists with rain jackets on while glaring at all the little kids with squirt guns (hello?! when in Rome??!!) and apparently, not even the King back in the day, was immune from the water throwing. How often do you get to throw water on cops in a communist country? That'll buy you at least a stick massage in the US!







And if you tried to protect yourself, it just made the water throwing, flour tossing, color dyeing, and black tar greasing that much worse. If people are opening up car doors to douse the others inside, what do you think is going to happen when you pass by with an umbrella?