Happy Laos New Year Everyone! It's now 2551 which is the date I am going to start using for everything just to keep things interesting.

Welcome to one of the most bombed countries on Earth. Between 2507 and 2516 (that's 1964 to 1973 for you...see how interesting that is!) the US dropped over 2 million tons of bombs costing $2.2 million bucks a day! About 30% of them never actually exploded so the country is littered with UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) that occasionally still blow up today. Fortunately there is a clean up effort under way and at the current rate of work the country should be bomb free in about 100 years...or in 2661. Yay!

I think if you translated "Happy New Year" from Laos into English it literally means "Attack Tourist with Water". Although no one is immune, tourists make enticing targets in the huge water battles that last all week. Fortunately the local water gun dealers will sell to anyone so the fight just grows bigger. By day, the streets are crawling with well armed 10 years olds patrolling their "hood" for trespassing tourists. By nightfall, all is quiet because the kids have to go to bed and Laos people get cold when the temperature drops below 85 degrees (like 30 C or something) so they don't want to be wet anymore.

Another highlight here in the city of Luang Prabang is to get up early to see the monks begin their walk to receive morning alms from the Buddhist faithful. Each morning, the locals line the streets and fill the monks' begging bowls with sticky rice, money, or a chocolate bar or something. At the same time, the super poor or homeless beg from the monks who just got all this free stuff. So it's like one big exchange program each morning in this Unesco World Heritage city.

I've made some good friends here in Luang Prabang and were all heading south. Next stop, Vang Vieng.