songkran

Herro,
God knows how to spell Songkran, but I can tell you a bit about it anyway.

Once a year, Thailand gets a bit crazier over their new year celebrations. Of course, it's not 2007 over here, it's something like 2550. Something to do with their year 0 being a good 543 years before ours. Also, just to round things off, their new year is between the 11th and the 16th of April. I say between, since they seem to spread it out as much as possible.

It's not just new years, but also a water festival, falling on the hottest days of the year (generally speaking). Water festival may bring to mind images of hasitly erected fountains and people drawing crosses of holy water on your head. Not so. Here, everyone soaks everyone else.

During the day, depending on the area of Thailand (or Bangkok) you visit, you will get wet. In the quieter residential zones, perhaps a bit damp from a water pistol. Visit Khao San road, and you will find a Foam party, loud music, and loads of people soaked to the skin. Once you've recovered from the ice cubes that just went down your spine, you may like to retaliate.

At night, a trip to Silom road (not far from home) is an eye opening experience. Thousands of Thai youngsters descend on the street and get very wet and very, very drunk. It was a bit crazy to be perfectly honest. We didn't have any water guns with us, but neither did anyone else. This wasn't the tactical, long range soaking of Khao San, but instead a general, loose, uncaring drenching all of its own. I wish I hadn't had my phone, wallet and camera on me at the time.

It's ok, I ingeniously wrapped them in plastic bags from 7-11, which kept them safe.

Sadly, I don't have many pictures of this debacle, and again sadly, I can't get them online until mums camera corporates and lets me download them. Needless to say, it was incredibly good fun, and an amazing time to be in Thailand. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Dom

P.S. I kill those who do not reply to emails. Just so you know.
seb, ben consider yourselves warned...

Massage

Herro,

The time came at last, I went for one of the fabled Thai massages. I'll be honest - Not overwhelmed by the experience. It is indeed rare for me to be bent and poked in such a way, but that doesn't mean I seek bending and poking from wrinkly old ladies down by the beach.

That isn't to say there was anything dodgy about the experience, there wasn't. It was curiously sexless actually. Even the bum bit.

My main concern was that once she'd finished, I'd find myself unable to walk, paralysed by some stray manipulation. Fortunately, my fears were groundless and I strolled triumphantly away, dignity almost intact.

A "Happy Ending", you might say.

No, not that type.

Dom

P.S. Delighted to see the comments flourishing in my absence, I rarely reply, which is a rather footling stratagem, I know. Vicky - send me your email address (mine's fb.dcmain[at]googlemail.com). Ben, reply to your damn emails, Seb, comment, you brass-stud, someone get rob to read this, and, well, that'll do. Phil, get your head out of the toilet.

Chaeng Yours!

Hello there everyone,

I have, I know, been unfairly lax in my updating of this marvel of communication. I did have a rather upsettingly busy last few weeks of term, though I may have actually been kidding myself and been doing nothing at all. Food for thought there.

Anyway, term ended last Friday with a triumphant bang, or at least, it might have done, I wasn't there. The penultimate week was busy for me, and my family arrived on the Tuesday of the last one. This meant I had a pretty good excuse for leaving school early and doing no work. Or so I thought - I was pretty rapidly drafted into lighting for the tiny kiddies' production. Why they bother getting tiny kids like that to act, when they have almost no control over their limbs yet is beyond me, but there you go.

So, on Friday morning I hopped into a taxi, after writing a tearful note* to my flatmate, and went for breakfast with Mum, Dad and my sister. Then onto a plain to Chaeng Mai. I think I spelled that right.

My first impressions of Thailand's Spiritual capital (apparently) were not favorable. I found it polluted (forest fires and cars) unattractive (dead trees, long roads, no hookers) and very, very hard to get around. In Bangkok, despite their many, many problems, taxi-meters are a pretty good way of getting places. It usually only takes a few tries to get one who knows where you're going. Sometimes you can even find one who knows where he's going, but that's less common.

Our hotel wasn't too far from the perimeter of the old city, but was still a bit too far to walk anywhere useful in the midday heat. With this in mind, I was very annoyed to discover no taxi-meters, only hotel run minibuses of ill-repute or those death-defying injury-producing "Tuk-Tuk"s. So named because of the two stroke engines which power them and the sound they create. These are apparently, in Chaeng Mai, run by the Tuk-Tuk mafia (I'm not joking) who do all in their power to prevent any public transport system from being successful. A bit of advice then, for any visitors to the area, those red pickup trucks with roofs are the local equivalent of taxis. You can get at least 15 people in them (7 in comfort, perhaps) and they're very cheap. I was confused by the fact that they look the same as the ones in Bangkok, which are even cheaper, but run on routes like buses.

Once we made this discovery, Chaeng Mai became a much nicer place, with a profusion of cheap cafes and restaurants. Getting across the road is still unbelievably difficult, but there you go. There is a night market there which is very popular with tourists and therefore crap. I don't like to defame an ancient city in this way, but it's just stalls of the same stuff they sell in MBK only more expensive, and more repetitive.

However, on Sunday, there is another market, called the Walking Street market or something like that. I presume it's named in this way because they close off the roads to cars for the market. The street itself doesn't actually walk anywhere. This market is great. It's thronging with tourists and Thais alike, its on all Sunday evening, when it's just about cool enough to wander around without expiring on the road. The stalls are either on mats on the floor or low tables, most things are candlelit and almost all the items are hand-made and excellent value. There is very little of the usual repetitive nature of Thai markets, each stall has something different, and there are hundreds. Quite a staggering number.

Chaeng Mai is well worth a visit just for this, and if anyone is planning on coming but not for the weekend, plan again.

Since this post is in danger of becoming too long to be read in one sitting, and I don't want to bore you, dear readers, I'll sign off. Plus, an outside Internet cafe just doesn't feel right. Actually, it's awesome.

Dom

*don't forget the milk, feed the cat, etc.