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It's important during this time to pack up all your cares and woes and set them afloat down the Mekong. These khathos are the vehicles.

Banana trunks and leaves are cut and shaped into this cake-like display. They are topped with candles and incense and on the night of Lai Heua Fai, October's full moon, families take them to river's edge and let them go, hoping that as the current carries them downstream, it is also carrying away any bad luck, disease and shortcomings that may have accrued over the past year.

We watched hundreds of them floating down the Mekong all night long. We bought our own from these girls who live just down the block from us.