If you set foot outside your house during the 3 days of Pi Mai you will get wet - I can promise you that. This holiday is about water.

I got on my bike to go around the corner for a couple of bottles of Beer Lao and got drenched - I mean dripping wet. I kept my camera in a ziplock bag. Groups of kids, like these pictured here, with basins, buckets, waterguns and hoses, are ready to waylay any and all travelers.

And it's not just kids, grownups will gently pour water down your back while wishing you good health and good luck for the coming year. It's a wonderfully refreshing celebration.