I know I’ve not been keeping you up to date as regularly as usual, but that’s due to an unforeseen combination of lack of cash, lack of internet cafes and being distracted by glorious beaches.
What? I hear you say, surely not another one? Well yep, another New Year celebration has come around. This time it was Songkran, or Thai New Year and I think it’s my favourite New Year so far, probably because it’s the most fun a person can have over three days. It starts out serious enough- a Buddhist ceremony where water is used to gently wash Buddha images and then is poured over the monks themselves- but afterwards it turns into a fully fledged, no holds barred, deadly (okay not deadly as such) water fight.
Get a city, (in our case, Chiang Mai) arm every occupant with a water pistol or pickup truck containing vats of water and let them loose on each other and you’ll get close to what happens. It’s actually impossible to stay dry if you step outside for more than three seconds. It’s chaos. Great chaos. The only slightly bad thing about it is the “nam yen.” This is water that’s had a block of ice melted into it. So cold! If we spotted anyone with nam yen, we’d take serious revenge on them. People driving past in cars were bombarded if they’d left so much as a crack in their window and why anyone even bothered to attempt driving a moped I’ll never know. It was all very good natured though.
The madness would go on all day with everyone crowding the pavements and taking over the roads. Music was blasting out from all the bars and shops and everyone was dancing and having an amazing time. Shame it came to an end, but it was nice to by dry for a change and all the water actually ended up giving me an ear infection...
After Songkran it was a gruelling forty eight hour journey south to Ko Pha Ngan, home of the infamous Full Moon Parties. They happen...well at every full moon and have been going for about twenty five years. You may have heard of them and if so you probably know about all the bad press that goes along with them. I remain unconvinced because out of the eleven of us (and okay there were maybe thousands of people there) none of ended up drugged, killed, drowned, attacked or robbed. And we definitely weren’t at our most sensible. Except me, that is. Ahem....
So at a Full Moon Party you dance your way around the beach through the night and through different musical genres until the sun rises. And it was very surreal wandering into the trance section at five o’clock in the morning I can tell you. The ultimate night out though.
That was just a small snippet of what the holidays have been like (i.e AMAZING), though I may share some more if I run out of tales of thrilling village life.
Sawat Dee Pii Mai!
(again again)
