Its a celebration like no other on the festival-packed Laos calendar: Seeing out the old year in Luang Prabang and ushering in the new, with waterfights, solemn temple-going and elaborate parades. And the setting couldnt be more magical, in the former royal capital at the junction of the Mekong and Khan Rivers, nestled among the mist-shrouded mountains of Laos north.