Craziness

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, accordingly, Bangkok, at least, bits of it, have gone crazy. Well at any rate, the school was a bit. We all came in today wearing red, or at least, as much red as we could. Given my incredible sense of style and mature sophistication, I wore another of those damn orchestra tour shirts - which just happened to be red.

Needless to say, like many of these far eastern cultures, the Chinese are absolutely crazy. They have music which is effectively a tuned drum being whacked repeatedly by one guy, and two guys with cymbals standing on either side going crash.. crash... crash. Cool, but a bit random, I'll be frank.

Anyway, they started off with some people dressed as dragony-liony things dancing around on the floor, with some other insane looking guy wearing a huge mask waving a stick at them.

After this, the guys playing the music ran around the square holding flags. I wouldn't be lying if I said the proceedings dragged slightly at this point...

Anyway, after the boring bit, the guys got back to their bashing and shouting, and then the fun started. Another couple of guys slipped into a dragon costume (much more gaudy than the others) and began this routine of jumping around poles and roaring and standing on heads and all sorts - piccies to follow once I get back to school next week.

After this rather entertaining spectacle, some of the Chinese chappies clothed completely in yellow and blue, (what admirable alliteration!) made a huge human pyramid, though it was more a triangle, in actuality, of about 5 people high. They put a 2 year old at the top. Then they jumped down, and made a human tower (no pyramid or triangle, just one column of guys) with a baby on top - literally, a baby.

Naturally, some of the staff were looking a little uncomfortable by this point.

Straight after that, they all scuttled off to get this 30 foot pole lying on the ground a few meters away. Then they tied the 2 year old to the end of it, and stuck him up in the air. The kids, given that kids are obsessed and delighted by violence or even potential danger, loved it. The staff, particularly the school inspectors sitting next to the headmaster, did not. It was when another bloke climbed to the top and untied the kid - dropping him down the pole between his legs that we were certain white meat was to be on the lunch menu.

Dom