Yesterday Mike took us and a few other Embassy employees, as well as the Ambassador to Nasawn to part take in Boun Bang Fai festivities. The mail clerk at the embassy was gracious enough to open his home to us and let us crash his party.
From what I understand the purpose of the rockets is to penetrate the sky and let the rains fall; the symbol of the raining season. I could be wrong, this is just what I remember Mike telling me last year while showing us videos of some of the rockets.
To see wikipedia history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rocket_festival
This is one of the most bawdy and sexually orientated festivals, but after experiencing Pi Mai Lao, I'm starting to think they all are. Men dress as women and dance in the streets, or like yesterday on Floats.
It was a good time, but I feel no amount of planning would've prepared us this time. Next time I will not go to the rocket field, I'll bring a fan and take the water out of the car. We did stay fairly hydrated, but left the party w/o our water bottles and the heat was just too intense. It was also much, much louder than I imagined. It sounded a lot like jets flying right over our heads.
Mike enjoyed himself, as usual. He always seems to take delight in activities that cause me to lose my shit.
So no more rambling; here are the pictures Mike took.
One of the rockets passing in a parade.
Some monks had a rocket :)
Finn got his own rocket too
Right about now I started to lose my shit
No comments:
Post a Comment