A wet and wild new year!!!!!

Charissa soaked!! ;-p

Soi 1 Chiang Mai, the heart of the water fighting

Further down Soi 1, it just kept getting crazier

Flight to Chiang Mai

Charissa and I at the waterfalls in Luang Prabang

Water fight on the main street of Luang Prabang

Tourists and local children soaking passing vehicles on the main street Luang Prabang

So here we are in the middle of the biggest water fight either of us has ever seen. The starting of the Loas new year in Luang Prabang was nothing compared to what Chaing Mai has in store for us.

Our last few days in Luang Prabang were nice and relaxed, we just bummed around town getting soaked occasionally by the locals and tourists. We did some last minute shopping in the night market as they had so much nice stuff to buy, we ended up with a fare load by the end of the night. The next day we tried to send our purchases back by mail but were forced to bail on that idea due to the price. We will now have to buy an extra back pack to carry all our stuff, a box just isn't cutting it.

We went back out to the waterfalls the day before we left to seek reprieve from the heat, it was so nice even though it was much busier than the last time we had been. It was totally bazaar, we ran into garlens friend geoff on the way out. Its a small world.

We flew to Chiang Mai yesterday, a quick 1 hr flight apposed to 20+ hrs on the bus. We got our free visa with out a hick up, got through customs with a little convincing due to our large box off stuff from Laos and then got a cab with another couple.

The cab ride into town was absolutely ridiculous, our cab driver took us on a wild goose chase through town. He kept humming and hawing about where we were going, trying to convince us to take a look at his friends guest house and telling us that it might take 1,2,3 hrs to get any where. The catch behind the time was that after ever hour we had to pay 200 baht more. We finally managed to get him to drop us close to where we wanted to be, jumped out into the madness of the giant water fight and headed for a guest house. The first guest house was full so I headed off to get soaked and find one while charissa watched the bags, thankfully it didn't take me to long.

We got settled into our guest house, which is very nice. It is definitely worth the extra money as it is not a cheap dive. We got geared up to get wet and then set off into the madness, grabbing squirt guns to defend ourselves in the chaos. We spent the afternoon and early evening getting soaked and looking for a ATM that would work, finally finding one just before giving up. We had mexican for dinner and then packed it in too dry out.

The next couple of days will be spent wondering around town soaked, which is bearable in this heat as it has been around 35-45 c the last little while.

Hope you are all still doing well, can't believe that we will see you all in less than two weeks. The time has really blown by. Hope the weather is good for our return otherwise we might have to wear parkas for the first couple weeks ;-P.

All our love,
Kieran and Charissa

(p.s. charissa may just stay behind and make kieran send money ;-) oh to be a kept asian bride ;-p if only!)