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BUON BANG FAI

April and May are the hottest months in Laos. This spring was hotter than most. For weeks temperatures hovered above 40º. This is when you just want to find an air-con room and sip an ice cold Beer Lao.

But this is when the Lao give the rain god, Phaya Thaen, a wake-up call. They do it with rockets. Winding our way north out of Vientiane one Sunday afternoon we passed dozens of pickup trucks bringing their home-made rockets to local launch pads.