For my last two weeks in Thailand (until I come back on my way home) I went up North for Songkran which is the Thai new year. I've never really been envious of Christmas or any other holidays but Songkran has got to be the world's best holiday and I'm pretty pissed that Jews didn't think of it first. Water in Thai Buddhism represents newness and second chances, so for the new year, people used to sprinkle scented water on statues of the Buddha, monks and elders for good luck. I'm not really sure how it got so out of control, but somehow over the years this respectful sprinkling of perfumed water turned into a HUGE all out national water fight that lasts almost a week. It's totally ridiculous. Chiang Mai for some reason is notorious for their Songkran celebration so I had to buy a bus ticket weeks in advance, which is totally unheard of in Thailand just to be able to get up there.
I left at 4:00 p.m. the afternoon before the festival and what should have been a 9 hour bus ride took 13. The bus driver was a smoker and would stop, seriously every forty minutes for like 15 minutes. It was miserable... to make matters worse there was this awfully creepy guy who was sitting behind me and kept leaning his head really (REALLY) close to mine while I was sleeping. After waking up an inch away from his bug eyes a couple of times I just leaned forward on my knees for the rest of the ride which made it impossible to sleep and impossible to even read. I arrived at about 5 in the morning and rented a cheap hostel just to shower and take a nap before joining in the festivities for the day. I didn't really know what to expect, but I hadn't taken ten steps out of the hostel before I was drenched in water.
All along the side of the main roads and side roads are stands selling buckets and water guns. Everyone in the city is parked outside their shop fronts with huge garbage cans filled with water just splashing and squirting everyone who walks by. They also put these huge blocks of ice in their garbage cans so the water is always freezing. There were big sponsored stages all along the river front with hot thai girls dancing to club music... most people in Thailand drive pick up trucks and every truck and tuk-tuk had a garbage can of water and sufficient ammo and would just inch along in a sort of parade, splashing each other and all the pedestrians. People were pushing each other in the canal, dropping buckets on ropes down into the canal to deck people and ambushing people on the sidewalk. It felt like I was flirting with everyone... every single person you make eye contact with or even pass by will shoot you with their guns or catch you and pour a whole bucket of ice water on your head. Little kids will just sit in their garbage cans full of water and spring up to shoot you in the face. All the bars are packed all day long but no one can afford to sit down so everyone just stands up and dances and guns each other down. There are also no boundaries... I saw some Israeli guy pour a bucket of water on his waitress's head as she was taking his bill and she just laughed and poured his drink on him. Even the really old people get into it and the whole country just gets more irreverent than it usually is, which is very anyway. It was completely awesome.
On the third day of Songkran, it got a little tiresome to not be able to walk to 7/11 or get anything to eat without being soaking wet, and it started to get a little colder too so the ice water wasn't really appreciated. I put an emergency poncho over me and my knapsack and got on a van going up to Pai which is about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai. The van wasn't air-conditioned and you couldn't keep the windows open on account of the water festivities, but 3 hours is very short by Thai travel standards so it wasn't such a big deal. Pai was a little bit more relaxed about the splashing but I was still wet within 20 minutes of stepping off the bus and I just surrendered and enjoyed the dancing lady boys and obnoxious teenagers. Pai is one of the best places, if not the best place that I've been to so far. The whole city is less than one square mile and it's right in the heart of the northern mountains. There isn't enough power to have air-conditioning and whenever it rained the power in the whole town could go out for up to 2 hours. It was kind of nice though even then... all the bars would just light candles and people would sit out the rain and wait for the Bob Marley to come back on. It just kind of sucked when it happened at night and the fans would stop running. The atmosphere there couldn't be more laid back... most of the roads won't even allow cars to drive on them and there are never enough people in the city at any given time to generate that much bustle.
While I was there I rented a motorbike for 3 bucks a day and cruised around the mountain roads surrounding Pai. The signage out there is pretty bad but getting lost on a motorbike is still fun and I managed to see a bunch of water falls, hot springs, canyons, farms, villages and amazing views the whole time. Even after 5 days of Songkran, little kids would still run out in front of my bike, stop me and drench me with water. It's also customary to put powder on people's faces and it's bad luck to wash it off so I looked pretty ridiculous all day. There's a certain thrill these people get by pouring water on foreigners... I heard some people speculate that they're taking out all their pent up aggression on tourists but I don't think so. After all it's like giving someone a blessing so it's actually really nice of them to take time out of their days to get us wet. It was also so hot riding around all day and my shoulders were starting to get burnt, so the water felt really nice.
I met some really awesome people while I was there too... Certain places in Thailand attract certain nationalities for some reason. Like while I was in Koh Chang, everyone everywhere was speaking either Swedish or German. In Pai, everyone is Israeli. Most of the signs are written in Hebrew also and all of the keyboards in internet cafes have Hebrew letters stuck on them. I think it might have something to do with all the good trekking up there, but whatever it is, I had a really good time with a good group of people while I was there. I also ran into these 2 Swedish girls who I'd met in Koh Chang at the beginning of my trip. A couple of times since being here I've seen people I recognize from other places, but it's never been anyone I connected with so I didn't really speak to them about it. These two girls though had been working at a bar on the island and I hung out with them the whole time. Then again when I was in Cambodia I accidentally ran into them at Angkor Wat and then I just saw them walking down the street in Pai. The three of us and these Israeli guys went to this outdoor, fire pit type place called "Don't Cry Bar" and the bartender there was soooo funny. He employed us to help him open about a million individually wrapped straws and showed us all these mind puzzles using tooth picks and bottle caps.
I've kind of become an insomniac lately, I think it has something to do with all the long over night bus rides and early rising roosters and monks. The heat also makes being tired so much worse... and I don't think drinking in the morning helps either. One of the days I was in Pai I found an "eco-pool" about a twenty five minute walk outside of the city and just sat and read all day. "eco" in pool terms just means dirty and not chlorinated, but after walking around soaking wet all week I was ready to jump in just about any kind of water.
I had only planned on staying in Pai for a couple of days but I spent the better part of a week there because it was so great. I only went back to Chiang Mai yesterday to go to the Sunday market, eat some good Italian food, exchange used books and get a bus back to Bangkok. The bus ride on the way back only took about 9 hours and I made it home by about 2 which was nice. When I got home though my aircon was broken and leaking water all over everything. I couldn't fall asleep with the dripping sound and now I'm really beat. Tomorrow's my last day in Bangkok before I fly to Singapore where I'll be for a few days before I go to Malaysia, and from there to Sydney. I think I did my last couple of weeks in Thailand good, but I'm really going to miss it I think. Also, packing is a bitch and I'm only bringing a knapsack to Australia... Here's to smelling terrible until my Nana starts pampering me and washing all my clothes.
Peace,
Esti
No comments:
Post a Comment