Glances over the shoulder of a teacher...: "Boon Nam" - A Water Festival pt. 2 ... and colorful boat racing

The day of the festival is a fun day of boat racing and celebration. This means: a lot of people, boats from all over the provinces to race, a lot of loud music and muffled speaking (albeit obnoxious to those who don't care for the cowbell-driven, Lao music and the never-ending talking/awkward laughing from the microphones), along with many thousands of gallons of Beer Lao being consumed (it is the only drink I know that is in EVERY remote village... even when there is no clean water, there is Beer Lao available).

As we went down to the riverfront, I noticed a couple Lao children playing alongside the street. Other than flour... what else is really needed for fun?

Also... someone is going to have some heavy duty cleaning-up to do after this is all over:

There were many small stands dotting the streets with excellent wares. I bought some coconut ice-cream ('saeph elee'- Lao words for really delicious) for about 1,000 kip or roughly 12 cents. We headed toward the pavilion where the main audience was sitting and watching the boat racing. Loud speakers were giving a Lao music ambiance and someone was obviously commenting on the happenings on the river (however, I don't know how anyone understood him because his voice was so muffled I couldn't tell for the longest that it was a someone talking... i thought it was someone who was humming along very poorly to the songs). We were arriving mid-afternoon and it the races were probably over at that point. What we saw was the parading of the various teams along the river audience. Check out some of the pictures and videos:

The movements they are doing with their arms is the Lao style of dancing. Also, The colors represent their village.

Some random shots of the festivities in the downtown area.

My kinda kid... toting the toy gun with pride:

And, another appearance of the balloon salesman.

Buying the caramel flavored, kettle-popped popcorn, yes we are addicted. I love the Asian camera sign which even my students will do in the classroom when I try to take their picture: