Any thoughts on travel or accommodation this weekend? I would really like to catch the Sunday activities, but I do need to attend classes Friday and Monday. Is it feasible to make the journey affordably during a 72 hour window? Will I be able to find a place to stay just by showing up? Any thoughts or experiences welcome.

My only thought is that you would need to fly.

@tigertiger

I agree with you. Otherwise you will spend more than half you time on a bus getting there and back, most likely a sleeper bus. It is longer a trip than it appears on a map.

I flew to Lin Cang a week ago and it cost me 550 yuan one way - you can get a cheaper flight to Bangkok!

Fly: Check.

Accommodation?

Accomodation in Jinghong likely to involve inflated prices right now. Anyway, for the 'Water Splashing Festival', which in fact has Theravada Buddhist religious meaning and is not just playtime for tourists (and it has strong playtime elements, which can get a little rough), I'd strongly advise Laos or Thailand, not Jinghong. However, I don't think fly-down/fly back in 2 days is worth it.

@Alien,

Laos & Thailand also have the Water Splashing Festival? How does it differ? Which part of Thailand and what dates?

The official water splashing activity takes place on Tuesday April 15, 2014

It's actually quite an important event in Thailand.

More dates here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Festival#List_of_Water_of_Festival

The 'Water-Splashing Festival' is celebrated everywhere there are Tai Buddhists (the word Tai is the usual spelling in English for people of a broad ethno-linguistic category of peoples which includes the Thai (of Thailand)), the lowland Lao, the Dai of Xishuangbanna and Dehong in China, and the Tai of the Shan state in Myanmar. I'm pretty sure it is also celebrated among Tai-speaking people in Northeast India, and among the Zhuang (also ethno-linguistically Tai) in China's Guangxi Province. In Thailand the festival is called Songkran; in Laos it is called Piimai Lao (Lao New Year). The festival has Theravada Buddhist significance, and much of this religious significance is lacking in the public displays of water-splashing conducted, with an eye on the tourist dollar, in China.

People go to the wats (Theravada Buddhist monastery-temples) to pay respects to the monks, and this is a means for making Buddhist merit for Buddhist laymen. This religious element, the basis of the festival itself, is downplayed in China, but you can see it virtually anywhere in Laos or Thailand. I think the Burmans (majority population of Myanmar) also celebrate it, in addition to the Tai of the Shan states. People respectfully splash the monks a little in the street as the walk past, but everywhere I know that it is celebrated there is also a great deal of fun water-splashing, etc., among laymen, and it can get a bit rough - don't expect to stay dry.