SAFE

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Happy New Year! After exploring nearby Golden Mount, I realized that I was too hot, and my camera battery was too dead; I returned to my hostel, changed, drank water, and headed to KhaoSon Road for day TWO of the new year waterfight festivities. About an hour in, I was enjoying my first beer in Thailand, talking to a group from England. After finishing the beer, I spotted a "3 (bottles of water) for 10 (baht)" and decided to invest in the amazing deal. On my way back to the English group with our waterfun refills, an announcement came on that cleared the streets.
In the demonstrations, two were killed, and we were orderd to return to our hotels, and the local vendors were orderd to shut down and urge the party-goers to clear the area.
As I gathered my thoughts and freely gave away all three of my water bottles, I got a bit panicked, headed into the right direction to my hostel, and double-checked myself way too often. Once on the main road, I saw ahead that around the street that I needed to turn onto for my hostel was a fire of some sort, black flames ablaze.
I must say, for using a map the size of a business card, I applaud myself for swiftly (and safely) returning to my hostel, using backroads I hadn't yet seen (sorry mom, dad... I had to).

So the fun was sure to end...Only there is this super high-tech internet shop next door, with about a dozen teenage locals with an unlimited water source, buckets, and fairly good music. Sooo...I acted quick, grabbed a guy from my hostel who had yet to experience the New Year festivities, and filled the two waterguns that Dan had purchased yesterday. To my luck, there were loads of tuk tuks full of locals, and tourists, for us to splash, and across the street are about 8 local children playing.... So now, the fun did not end. I indulged, ran across the street, and tried my best to mimick the sound of a machine gun as I tried my best to take on the 8 local children, completely failing, and loving every second of it. An hour and a half later, and after running through my very clean, quiet, hostel half a dozen times, I decided it would be rather decent of myself to check in with the family, and let them know that I was safe in my hostel. Which I am.

So it looks like another night of page-turning through Eclipse, and perhaps spicing up my Pad Thai with some shrimp, instead of egg. It's ironic how I was telling the group from England I wished I was staying on Khao Son with the other backpackers; now, I couldn't be much happier to be by a street less frequented by the "red shirts" (protestors).

Looks like mom and I will skip out on any sightseeing in Bangkok, and move to the Islands the morning after her arrival. Honestly, this place is too hot, and without the water festivities continuing, I won't complain to get down south, and to the islands of the Gulf, and Andaman Coast.

More update coming soon.

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Comments

[zach]

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sooo glad you are safe there babe! i hope you got some good pics of these water festivites, bc i cant even imagine what thats like lol...take care! ;-)