Hmong New Year, continued...

One of the great things about the Hmong, amonst the many cool things, is that they celebrate their new year over two weeks or so. As such, my short visit to a new year celebration in Xieng Khuang last weekend was supplemented by a trip to Kilometer 52, a town named after the distance it is on the road north from Vientiane.

There are plenty of places and times in South East Asia where you can see people wearing traditional dress, doing traditional things, etc, for the benefit of the tourists who visit. Most days at KM 52, you won't see such things, because they don't do things for tourists. KM 52 is just a regular town in the Mekong Valley that is pretty much bypassed by 99.9% of tourists.

The new year celebration is for them.

What's nice is that Xeng, one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've met in Laos, is from KM 52. He moved there with his family in 1996 from the Saisomboun Special Zone, but is now living in Vientiane as a full-time student and part-time employee at the Embassy. He invited us celebrate with him and his family.

A few photos of young people in their finery.