Vientiane boat racing 2008

October 15, 2008. In the early morning Lao national TV started live broadcasting Vientiane Boat Racing Festival. I usually stayed home at this day each year watching the racing from TV rather than sitting on the bank of the Mekong river under hot sun.

This year I planned to visit one of our friends whose house is located near the river bank. We (2 sons 1 wife and me) left home at about 3 p.m heading North to Wat Oubmoung along Luang Prabang road. The traffic was terrible especially at downtown. Along the both sides of the road the footpath was changed to the bike parkings with 10,000 kip per one bike (the normal price is 2000)

We arrived at the destination, the house still has a fact of a recent flood and sand bags used to fight flood still remained. I could see some of my coleagues sitting around big table. This picture is typical as every houses located near the festival must receive guests the same way, food and drinks.

We stayed with the party not for so long before we moved to another house and start eating and drinking again not even know which boat is the winner. That happens to many people each year.



We arrived home after dark as it was raining a bit. At night the festival still continued without us. In the next morning we heard from TV that this year people could see more Nāga's Fireballs than last year