Song Kran
The cultural festivities for Song Kran (the Thai New Year) started early on April 3. Liz and I saw this stunning procession of traditionally dressed Thai women and men at one of the main Wats in town. The men were pulling a large boat-shaped, gold leaf covered wagon and the women were throwing flower petals on everyone. Lining the street of this procession were women with buckets of fragrant water. They threw the water on the boat-shaped wagon as it passed.
Before the procession, there was a traditional dance of masked Thais, a man and a woman. It was expressive and had "smoke" (not sure what is really was, but it didn't smell) to go with it.
Song Kran began in earnest on April 12. All the water guns, pails, buckets, bathing suits, and water balloons were in use and the Thai’s main target was foreigners, like Joey and me. We stayed wet pretty much the whole day.
The city is surrounded by a moat filled with water. The streets around the moat are lined with DJs, dancers, food stalls, water pail sellers, and ice block sellers. This is where most people congregate. They get pails and haul the water up to throw on people. Others get a truck and put 55 gallon drums in the back. Then people in the back of the truck scoop out the water and throw it on people. Some people get sneaky and put ice in the water. The cold water isn’t as pleasant as the warm water, but it is horribly hot during the day so it doesn’t matter all that much.
This city-wide water fight does get a little tiring when you want to step out and quickly get some food or do an errand. The water throwing doesn’t stop until dark, so you try to figure out the path that will get you the least wet. I wanted to go 2 blocks to get some broccoli and took the best and shortest path I thought possible. However, by the time I got back I was thoroughly soaked. Efforts to evade the water throwing are useless.
This water party goes on for 4 or 5 days, so it isn’t like it only happens for one day. It is a long, watery party which requires all people to be in a good mood and tolerant of constant wetness.
Chiang Mai Adventure
As far as our Chiang Mai adventure, this happened when Liz was here. On Sunday, April 5, Joey and my day off, we three went off to do some mountain biking, elephant riding and whitewater rafting. Liz wanted to do the elephant riding; I wanted to do the biking and Joey had never been whitewater rafting. So, deciding on this tour was pretty easy.
The first activity was elephant riding, which was the easiest task of the three. We sat on top of the elephants on a box/seat type thing. Joey and I were together on one elephant and Liz and another person on the tour, Nathan, were on the other elephant. Nathan bought some bananas from some people to give the elephants, so Liz and Nathan fed the elephants those. The elephants have gotten down the trick of taking bananas from people on their backs. They tilt their head back making their mouth open wide and reach with their trunk. It shows their great dexterity.
The elephants have also been trained to go in the river and be given a bath. The elephants seem to enjoy the water and like to roll around in it. I am glad that our elephant decide not to take a bath with us on top. I would not be excited about a few ton elephant rolling around with me on its back.
The actual ride on the elephant was bumpy and some what uncomfortable, but the novelty of it was worth the ride. The muhots, or people in charge of the elephants, ride on the elephants head and forehead. I think that would be a better place to sit, less bumpy.
Liz also didn't like the elephants too much. :)After the elephant ride, we traveled to the starting place of our 10 km to mountain bike. Safety was a bit of a concern, since no helmets were provided and the bikes looked a little worse for wear. But we made it safe and sound. The day was hot and we were doing this at about 11 am, so during the hottest part of the day. The dirt road was pretty challenging in Liz and my minds, with lots of pot holes and ups and downs. Joey did very well. Liz and I brought up the rear. Liz wasn’t too happy for this part of the trip, and I have to say that I got tired of it quickly. Thankfully, the biking only lasted about 1.5 hours. We did finish the whole biking part though. The guide told us that last trip there were 20 people biking and none of them finished it. So we were proud of ourselves.
The end of the biking tour took us to lunch. There we grabbed some water and food - fried chicken, pineapple, garden salad, and spring rolls. It was a decent meal and the food and drink were more than welcome after the biking.
Two of the three activities were complete. The last was by far the best – whitewater rafting, but in kayaks because of the low water level. We are in the dry season now. Each person had their own kayak with a rafting guide in it. The guides were looking to have fun, so you had a better time if you were willing to play around. They loved to splash water with paddles, flip over boats, race other boats, etc.
Liz had a very fun guide and I had a few entertaining boats around. But unfortunately I got hurt. My boat turned over in a rapid and I hit my knee against a few rocks. Before going down the rapid, the guide said I should stand up if I fell out. I did, and that is what caused my knee to get banged up. His advice went against all of the other advice I had been told in the States. I should have just stuck with my American-given advice and stayed floating with my head back.
Anyways, I got back in the boat and was a little less enthusiastic about the trip than before. My enthusiasm lessened even more when I got knocked around more and had my burned leg slammed against a rock. A few days ago my calf touched the exhaust pipe of a motorbike and got a large, very painful burn. This bump during rafting caused extreme pain and I was ready for the trip to end. It ended eventually, but it took a while longer.
Overall though, it was a great, memorable trip. Liz had a wonderful time with her rafting guide. This was the first time Joey had done something like this and also had a magnificent time. The elephants were a good thing to do once and the mountain biking was just ok. J
Saying Good Bye
We quit work before the start of the Thai New Year, so the week before we had a few good bye dinners. The school took us out to a Thai dinner theater which preformed traditional Thai dances from various parts of the country. The costumes were elaborate and the dances were entertaining. I appreciated their thinking of us. A few nights before this, one of Joey’s students took us out to dinner at her uncle’s seafood restaurant. We were given a vast variety of dishes and tried some interesting food – snails, roasted baby pig, squid, crab curry, tempura, shrimp (large and small), and other Thai seafood delicacies.
I threw a party for my creative writing students to congratulate them on making their books. The kids loved it and the parents were very helpful by providing food and support.
Thai hospitality is wonderful and everyone wants to say good bye to you. Our landlady is even going to take us out to eat tonight. It is a very nice country with very nice people.
Heading Home
We leave Chiang Mai tomorrow to head to Bangkok. Once there we will say good bye to a friend, Amin, and hop on our plane back to the States that evening. Joey has a direct flight to JFK and will then take a train to Wilmington, DE, while I fly to South Korea, ATL and then Wilmington, NC. It will be a long few travel days coming up.
Thanks
Thanks for following my travels over the past few months. The trip has had some unexpected changes and adventures, but they were all welcome. I have learned a lot about adapting and the benefits of changing midstream if things aren’t going as well as you would like. Joey has been an excellent companion over the past few months and I am thankful that he has stuck with me through all of it.
That is it for now. See you in the States!
No comments:
Post a Comment