ban fai, lai lai

Yesterday I had a bitch about the 30th anniversary of the Lao PDR. Standing by it, but thought I'd add an interesting tidbit. C and I happen to live right near That Luang, the cultural and religious heart of the nation and its national symbol. There was a stage set up there yesterday as the focal point of the national day celebrations and last night C and I and a good friend named Grant wandered over to get stared at for a while.

There was a woman on stage singing Lao folk songs and somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people standing around listening, but not dancing (people here dance at weddings and other celebrations, but don't seem to dance in large crowds. Not that Lao folk music inspires one to boogy, but the other week on a similar stage for another festival there was a local hip hop outfit going off and the whole crowd of, if anything, more people than last night, stood stock still. It was eerie).

After a few minutes of staring and being stared at we decided to bail back to our place to subject Grant to a slide show from our northern adventure. As we were leaving the fireworks started up and we paused to watch. After about 10 minutes the thrill wore off and we kept walking home. Along the way the fireworks stopped and we thought "that was nice". Then they started again. Went on for a while and stopped again. "surely that's it" we commented among ourselves, and after a few minutes we figured we were right. Nope.

This went on for a good forty-five minutes, during which time our conversation was continually interrupted by the sonic booms (if that's what they're actually called).

Again, I was quite surprised at Laos' ability to put on a massive fireworks display while seemingly having the inability to pay government staff on time (sometimes for months at a time). It's not like paying someone US$ 10-40 a month is a huge stretch anyway.

*about the title - in Lao "ban fai" means fire works and "ban fi lai lai" means a lot of fireworks.
** That Luang, means something like "the stupa" in Lao. It's the giant (painted) gold pointy thing on the far side of the crowd in the picture. It's way more impressive in the distance.