Happy New Year celebrations round two!! We arranged our trip so that we would end up in Chiang Mai for the Songkran Festival which starts on the 13th and ends on the 15th. We were told that Chiang Mai was the place to be to celebrate the Thai New Year and from what I have seen and experienced today, I believe that we have made the right choice and are in the right place.
We flew in to Chiang Mai late last night and even on our way to the airport in Phuket yesterday, we saw truck loads of people with buckets of water soaking other trucks, moterbikes, and pedestrians. Everyone was having so much fun and I knew this was only the beginning of what wuold be a long, fun few days of celebrations for these people, and us ofcourse! We made it to our hostel no problem and got settled so we could rest up for the next few days of craziness.
We spent our morning and afternoon today walking the streets of Chiang Mai getting drenched with buckets of water and joining in on the thousands of water gun fights. Hundreds of trucks packed full of children, teenagers, and elders were cruising the street and tossing/spraying anyone and everyone they possibly could. Street vendors littered the roadsides selling water guns, buckets, delicious (and interesting) food, and much more. Some were even selling huge chunks of ice for people to put into large buckets of water to make it ice cold. I must say that it was quite refreshing to be doused in ice cold water when it was 100* out. We were told that they saved the coldest water for the foriegners and I am totally ok with that. Bring it on. We enjoyed some street food while watching the festivities take place all around us and tried to take as many pictures as we could without getting our cameras soaked. I wish I had brought a waterproof camera because I didn't capture anything that could even give an idea of what we were walking through today.
We came back to the hostel that we are staying at, the Mojito Garden 2, and we washed our clothes and hung them up to dry. Let's just say that the water that we were practically swimming in today was not even remotely clean. I tried my hardest to keep my mouth closed but it was hard because I was smiling the whole time out of the pure joy that seeing everyone so happy was giving me. And because I myself was enjoying everything that was going on around me. I am so happy that we were able to come to Chiang Mai and experience such a special few days with these people!
We changed our clothes (which was a HUGE) mistake, and went out for what we thought would be a nice and dry little stroll in our little area. Wrong. We got drenched all over again. We were doing pretty well in the beginning but our luck wore off and we were soaked again. People were running up to us and making sure they thoroughly drenched us in water. So funny! We had no defense so we just took it and moved on to the next group of people that would dump more water on us.
So now we have changed our clothes AGAIN and are hanging out back at the hostel, waiting for the night bazarre to start. We aren't really sure if the water throwing continues after dark, but if so, we will definitely be changing our clothes for the third time when we get home! And definitely taking a shower to wash all of this who knows what is all over us. It is quite the experience and I would not want it any other way! Even if we do get covered in water again later!
Tomorrow we have signed up for a day of Thai cooking. We will be getting a market tour of local vegetables and ingredients and then will take a train to to a farm just outside of the city to pick some of the ingredients we will be cooking with. We will get to choose six dishes to prepare while we are there and the best part is that we will get to eat it all after! YUM! For all of those who love thai food, maybe I will host a Thai dinner party when I come home. I am going to try to perfect that Pad Thai so I can get it right for once! After the farm I'm sure we will venture out for some more Songkran action to cool off!
Cheers, and Happy New Year!
-S
