What the night marks
Boun Lai Heua Fai falls at Ok Phansa, the end of the three-month Buddhist Lent that runs through the rainy season. For those months monks stay in their home monastery; on this night that restriction lifts, and the year opens up again.
It is also a thank-you to the river. The rains are ending, the Mekong is at its fullest, and the boats are sent downstream carrying the year's misfortune away with them.
The boats
Each wat builds one. The frames are bamboo, the skin is banana leaf and paper, and the decoration is candles and flowers, some of them large enough to need a dozen people to carry. They are made over several days in the temple grounds, in public, and watching them being built is half the festival.
At dusk they are carried through the streets to the Mekong and floated. Smaller household krathong go in alongside them, so the water fills with light from both the temples and the town.
Being there
The processions converge on the riverbank below the old quarter, and the streets close to traffic well before dark. Arrive while the boats are still in the temple grounds rather than at the moment they reach the water. The making is the part most visitors miss.
Dates move with the lunar calendar, so confirm the year's date locally. The town fills, and rooms on the peninsula are taken months ahead.
