Partytime

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Geo: 16.3833, 103.933

Popped into Phon Thong this morning to visit a relative of one of Jai's sisters deceased husbands .... not as complicated as it at first sounds. They are the only people we know who live in the town and we use them to park up the motorbike when we are going somewhere. With the schools being on holiday for all of this month the morning bus from the village isnt running and there is no other way of getting into town. No problems leaving the bike.

Today is Auk Phansa (sp?) or the end of the three months of Buddhist Lent. Jai had gone to the temple first thing this morning with a sister to take sone food offerings and had stgayed for a 'service' of some kind. In the evening people were lighting small candles outside their houses so we had to do the same. Youngsters, in particular, were returning to the village temple to 'Vientianne'. This is to walk around the temple three times with candles and offerings and is a really big event in the Laos capital which is where I guess the local name for the ceremony comes from. There are fireworks, mainly rockets, going off everywhere and it is quite a noisy night. 'Vientianne' used to be one of the few occasions when it was possible for the young boys and girls in the village to meet and apparently was the start of many a relationship when Jai was a child - long time ago !

I sit on the wall in front of the house, next to our candles, and drink too much beer watching the people pass by and the fireworks go off.

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