Well, we have had a little exposure to the celebrations for New Year, but nothing quite prepared us for the intensity that was to follow on the first day of Pii Mai. Thankfully, people allow you to wake up without too much of a jolt and there were no water fights or soakings during the early morning. However, it seems that all the locals put up a stall, with anything and everything to sell. All the main roads into and out of LP were cordened off by the very official looking (and dry) police. How we longed to soak then with our water gun, but we didn't want to risk their wrath and possibly a jail term! There were thousands of stall with everything you could imagine on offer. We didn't buy any more souvenirs but it was fun to look around - the hottest selling items definetly seemed to be the huge water guns - travellers were snapping them up like there was no tommorrow, clearly as a defensive mechanism - us included. Later in the afternoon we headed towards the Mekong river (still relativley dry at this point) where all the major action takes place. The road was awash with water that gangs of people were throwing over every passing vehicle and pedestrian alike. Buckets, pans, water gums, hose pipes - anything that could hold wayter were being used. We didn't stay dry for very long! But worse was to come as we took a short ferry ride across the river to a long sandspit that was hosting the key centre of activity for music and food. We had something of a shock when we arrived on the banks, however, as every person was covered, head to toe, in flour. Seemingly, water was just not enough as people progressed to flour to throw at you and red lipstick and charcoal to rub on your face and hair. There was no getting away from it, we just had to join in. Chris took charge of the water gun and Carol the bag of flour and before you knew it we were covered from top to bottom - not sure our clothes will ever recover. But it was great fun and the locals seemed genuinely surprised that we were willing to get into the childlike spirit and have a go with them - it just made it all the more fun.Despite the mayhem, the mood was very jovial and good humoured with no trouble anywhere. However, we were thankful when the sun set and the water hoses were put away for the day - I suppose you can have too much of a good thing. From here we are travelling back into Thailand on a fast speedboat up the Mekong river - described in our guidebook as a "white knuckle ride". Lets hope we make it alive.