The Wat with Caribou Mountain in the background.
Pi Mai translates into new years in Laotian. For the Lao refugee population and their kids in the US it’s a day to go to the temple and see and be seen. There are a couple big barrels of water for the kids to fill their squirt guns in and the women cook food to sell and raise money for the temple.
The Money Changers at the Temple, actually counting the donations
Last year they played a recording of the old national anthem and the nationalistic types stood at attention and all. First time they’d done that. I told my wife, “hey, that’s the old national anthem” and she insisted it wasn’t. Took me a while to get through the idea it was the one from thirty years ago. Then they parade around the Wat in a circle and that’s about it. Not quite as big a deal as in Luang Prabang but that’s all there is. In the afternoon the younger set shows up and the serious drinking and whatever begins.
A Buddha attempts to ward off bad vibes from Longs Peak. (Actually only the top of Longs is visible, it's pretty much hidden behind the mellower Meeker.)
We left pretty early this year. Felt kind of cold. Missing Laos.
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