Right across from the hotel, in front of their convenience store, the couple who also owns the restaurant we eat at frequently had set up a table. They immediately asked us to join them and their friends, and brought out more beer and meats for the lettuce wrap. Many of the pickup trucks driving by had an inflatable kiddy pool on the truck bed. Kids and youngsters were either dumping water on people or soaking them with their water guns as they rolled by. We were spared because we had food on the table. We hung out for about 30 minutes and made our way to the river.

Within steps, we were already attacked, not drenched but sufficiently soaked. It was time to pull out our own guns. I heard a man yell something in Lao that included “camera”. He stopped a young boy from hosing me because I had a camera in hand. Phew! Spared again, but not so lucky just a block away when confronted by an unsupervised rascal. One of our stupid guns had malfunctioned after we refilled it the first time. We were drenched.

People were happy and playful, music was blasting, and the water was cooling. Many restaurants and food stalls were open for business especially near the river and the public park where many of the water-splashing events were. Today, April 14th, is the transition day that belongs to neither the old nor the new year. I don’t know what it will be like tomorrow on the actual New Year’s Day.

After dinner, we hung out at Cowboy Park, a pedestrian-only street which is really a giant beer garden and grill. Almost every stall sells the same thing. Kenric walked me back to the hotel (not even two hundred steps) and then returned to Cowboy Park to enjoy the music the DJ was spinning. I was done for the night because I wanted to shower and be free of the mosquitoes.