April 16 2006

HAPPY HAPPY SONGKRAN, but I will get to the party and movin and groovin and
dancing to the music.

Its hot today so that makes a nice change and its about 10.30am on Sunday
morning. I am half asleep again from another absolutely incredible day.
So you all ask what has happened to me this week in Thailand, well apart
from practically having another best week of my life not a lot.

I last sent you a letter on Friday and that was a very long long time ago in
many ways and you will have to forgive me if I miss out on some stuff,
because a I cannot remember it b, you aint getting told it and c my
cherished journal (the adventures of a life not yet lived) is safely home in
England after being packed away.
To be honest I have no idea what happened on Saturday or Sunday so Tony when
you read this can you remind me and so I know of the events that did happen.
We had a final meal with Paul and Judy as they were off to Bangkok for their
second leg of their tour and then we went drinking.
Lets talk about the Sunday night market I was more than likely sober then.
Now I have mentioned markets here in Thailand before. The sunday night
market is something again different and far bigger.
If you can imagine the main shopping street in bath from Jollys at the top
to Boots at the bottom, remove all the vehicles and people painted blue
standing about not doing much, fill either side will stalls, turn the lights
out and then fill the streets so there is about 9 people wide walking up and
down it for over 4 hours, and these all different people not the same ones
then you maybe will have an idea what I am on about.
If you have visited ringo you will have seen the photos from the china town
market and then pigs heads etc now that was good, the photos in the dark are
the night market and they do little justice to the actual event. There are
all sorts of stuff there, paintings, carvings, silks, cottons, bags, all the
food you could ever want, clothes, western clothes, laterns, bed spreads,
night lights, candles and so so much more. And its cheap cheap, far cheaper
than the other markets. The majority of it is hand made. It is a real social
event, there is music and off the main streets there are courtyards with
food stalls or  picture galleries. We stayed in there for about 2.5 hours
before giving in to lager and the need to drink ourselves stupid.
But due to the fact that we were off to Pai again on the road from hell and
3.5 hours of it sensibility came along and we stopped about 2am.
Ah the journey to Pai, a roller coaster ride in a mini bus, a roller coaster
ride at 40kpm in a mini bus with air con turned off over hills and mountains
and bends and curves no roller coaster designer could ever compete against.
Songkran is here and below is some offical words about it.

Songkran is a Thai traditional New Year which starts on April 13 every year
and lasts for 3 days. Songkran festival on April 13 is Maha Songkran Day or
the day to mark the end of the old year, April 14 is Wan Nao which is the
day after and April 15 is Wan Thaloeng Sok which the New Year begins. At
this time, people from the rural areas who are working in the city usually
return home to celebrate the festival. Thus, when the time come, Bangkok
temporarily turns into a deserted city.

Songkran is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the
day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the
"Water Festival" as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.

To us farang it means water fight with anyone and everyone in Thailand, no
one escapes. So here we are all on the road to Pai, the air con is off cos
is helps prevent the engine from exploding and I know what that is like cos
that has already happened on the way to pai to me. Windows open everyone
dozing or asleep, when all of a sudden whooosh a bucket of cold water
through and this makes me feel so good, Tony's window hits us and soaks us.
Now I am not a racist, but the 2 israeli girls on board got drenched. Good.
They deserved that.
So first bucket now we are prepared maybe.
Getting to pai was fun then, the van getting splashed and opening and
closing windows quickly. Getting to the accomadtion in Pai was a little more
complicated. The last photo I sent shows these lucky israelis getting soaked
by some little buddhist monks, (there were 8 of them all fully armed to the
teeth with water and buckets) We got wet then really wet and then we met Jo,
Bekky and Jim from Ko Tao so got really really wet.
Cool
With this in mind we organised some fun for the afternoon and then well
perhaps the worse thing to happen happened.  My camera broke, how pissed off
was i? no camera no shop to buy one, well fucked off.
So annoyed to hell, went and got a large water soaker and prepared to do
battle. Kevin ex marine decided to treat it like goose green and all he
needed was some water bombs and camo paint and would have been in heaven.!!
The afternoon dear reader is something you may want to try. Now I rode a
horse once. I sat on a frame over and elephant and fed it sugar cane. But
bare back riding through jungle is far far more fun. But even better than
that, swimmng with elephants. Ok hands up who has swam with dolphins, and
again elephants. May I suggest you swim with a 3 ton monster who at any
moment in the river is going to just roll over throwing you at least 50cm
clear of it. Then climbing back on only to discover it is going to do it
again. This is a top ten moment, captured as well with water proof camera
and the pictures are good, although not sure when I will be getting them to
disc, its a little complicated at the moment, as in the thai dont want to as
its hard and they are being stubborn.
So swimming in a river with grey beasts is a fun fun thing, thankfully I
have dangerous sport insurance and I feel that was money well spent.

You may want a break now this is going to be a long one.

Sorry Auntie Janet, but this needs to be said. I will some difficulty
describing how you ride an elephant except for all you girls out there and
to be fair I am 5000 miles away so I dont really care. Imagine being astride
a 24 stone man with thick course hair on his thighs bouncing up and down in
120 heat for 1 hour with no break or respite. Your inner thigh hurts.

Pai is cool, like the islands without the sea and sand. We went to a great
thai restaurant and then to a live music club called be bop bar and then to
a hangout called bamboo. All good
The second day we went on a tour round Pai avoiding at all costs the water
fight although we did get drowned getting to our hired 4x4.
The thing about songkran is that no-one escapes. So anyone of a motorbike
will get a face full of water as will a cyclist or pedistrian so that makes
it extremely dangerous for some ( more on that later) so a guide driven
pickup def the right thing.
Ok so we went to a temple and got blessed by a monk, went to a 3 pool
waterfall without much water as there is none. Mind last year most of the
area around Pai got washed away by floods and you could see the damage
caused and when I get back to england I will add that to my advetures as
they are there as well. It was ok
Then a spot of lunch, a temple overlooking Pai, something a little more
interesting. Hot Springs where the water comes out of the ground at a stupid
heat then wanders down the hill collecting in pools where you can bathe. But
one of the best things about Thailand is there are no safety barriers,
health and safety rules and no enforcment. I was as close to the hot spring
as I am to the monitor in front of me as I type this email. So if I fell bye
I am dead.
Then off to a canyon where there were thin upright rock you could walk
across again no barriers help so that was cool and a long way down.

More water fights at the lodgings until dusk then beer and pizza and
eventually I got to sleep about 2am ish after chatting on line to some of
you.

The road back to chang was again as good as getting here, except the van was
not full so it was a little more comfortable, windows closed the water
fights had begun.
Chang was changing into a war zone, big blue buckets outside every bar, shop
stall, green pipes full of water feed the buckets. We got off the taxi about
a 1000 metres from base and like black hawk down we had to run through the
backstreets and dodge and wait and run to get back to base dry which in
reality we did although once at base the girls working there drenched us but
that was good.
My camera had broken so I needed a new one, so off we went again not too
wet. I brought a sony camera 219.00 well tony did my visa was declined due
to a security check, wankers, I phoned them and told them what I thought of
that. Anywau great deal great phone. Then Tony needed a bag to carry all his
stuff home so again with ex marine kev leading we dodged in and out of the
streets haggled and bargained like mad all brought new bags and got back to
base safe and secure.
In the evening there were 8 of us by then, Kev, me, Tony, Matilda from
holland, good old carole from france, jo, jim and beckky went for BBQ then
to Tam Nam Folk, a thai club for drink and dance, then to a place called
PornPing, no not a sex show another thai club where they had live music acts
which were absolutely fantastic, and very funny. Spicy on the cards so we
got some tuk tuks and we were in a race across the city with all the drivers
giving it what for through chang as we held for dear life to get to the club
which was 10 mins away , got there in first place.
Spicy was spicy so came away about 3am. Slept
For reference, Tony when did I meet Wan? off to the markets today at 3 with
her....... but thats a separate email to you......... oh i remember now, but
wont let ruin the fun!!!!!!!!

Thursday and Friday really blur into 1. We had special t-shirts made for
Songkran. We all brought the biggest water pistols we could find and we all
set out from base, the songkran commandos up to the old wall.
Hi Jill and Jon and Lez....... you know Oh My God

Well OH MY GOD or for carole OH MY BUDDHA

wow really wow. 10000 people all armed with water some on 4x4, tuk tuk,
every bar, all the road, on bikes, ice buckets, blocks of ice 2ft square,
music, sun, smiling soaking. We did battle on both days for 5 hours each.
Ice cold water is not a problem any more. I love it. Mum you would be so
proud I have never been so clean for so long. There was water coming at you
from every angle. From 3 year kids sat in paddling pools, spiritualists
blessing you, truck loads of people emptying buckets on you, bars fighting
bars, single people getting surrounded and drenched, dry people beiing
stopped and then not being dry people.

Some scary facts lifted from somewhere else for you

Motorcycles are involved in 86.43 per cent of the total road accidents.

The total number of roadway accidents from April 7-14 stood at 4,435,
resulting in 393 persons dead and 4,979 injured.

Happy New Year.

The water festival is actually very dangerous as everyone is drunk and
motorcyclists get hit full force by water, I saw severall crash.

So the water festival was fun.

Tony my guide for 3 weeks and instant backpacker Kev (just add rucksack)
departed Saturday am and cheers guys it was er.........
emotional.........Danielle said you never said goodbye big boy as did a few
other thai girls.

So went to the market with some US guys that had joined us, Ryan and Garrett
quickly before the war of water again, then for a treat bangers and mash for
breakfast with hp sauce and a cup of tea. Lovely
Water Water Water everywhere. Mental. 2 of the guys jumped into the moat
from the old wall during the party and we all learnt a new trick. Opening
car doors and soaking those inside. We stayed in one bar and just fought the
water there and it was a very good good laugh.
By the way john, after you rang Apple called me and called me and called me,
I had 3 hours sleep bet you cant imagine what she wanted, anyway she never
did get it!

In the evening we went to the riverside inn which could well have been
really good but as we were in the middle of  a huge electrical storm it
rained and rained and rained and an hour later still no table so me and Ryan
jumped in aTuk Tuk. Big Mac Meal 99 bar. Lovely, then did some bars and had
some fun.
2.30 am tucked up in bed quick chat to ma and pa and there we go.

I apologise for not really describing songkran, the photos are excellent so
that will be something to wait for.

So whats happening now then. Well its food time. Then a sleep me thinks then
the markets then bbq then night market, some beer and some chillin and then
well tomorrow is another great day just waiting to happen.

Anyone who wants to joined me, I am about in Thailand from the 25th as I
leave Thailand for Singapore and Malaysia.

My Thai mobile number is +6646876200. I never have any credit so ring me why
dont you.

For those in Somerfield, stay fresh and hopeful.

I am off, signing off so cheerio cheerio cheerio.