soaking it up in the Songkran festival

I arrived in Chiang Mai a sleepy mess. Our overnight bus had a squeaky chair that didn't let up for the entire ten hours and once we arrived Laura (the British girl I met on the bus) and I collapsed into our hotel.
Chiang Mai is a beautiful little city built on a deep history of pagodas and crumbling city walls complete with a moat around the old city center. In the heat of the day (up to 39 some days) the moat was always full of children just out of school. Chiang Mai offers up a more educational side of Thailand, with cooking schools, yoga classes, meditation retreats, massage classes and of course Thai boxing classes. On our first day in Chiang Mai, Laura and I were sucked into a complimentary industry tour. Although it was nice to go through the work areas of the silversmiths, silk makers, and umbrella factory, we soon caught on to the motivation of our "tour guides". They were touts loosely affiliated with the hotel and they told us they would get a bottle of whiskey on the condition that we spend at least ten minutes letting the workers try desperately to sell us some of their overpriced wares at each factory. We didn't think we really had a way out of it (we didn't know where we were and they were driving) so we obliged and two and a half hours later we were finally dropped off at our hotel to have something to eat. In all fairness the handicraft in Thailand is second to none.
The next day was spent wondering around the city trying to spend as little money as possible before the much anticipated hilltribe trek. The night market in Chiang Mai is massive and Laura and I spent about three hours getting lost in all of the colourful stands of clothes, food, and trinkets. There're some vendors here that do charcoal portraits that are among the best pieces of artwork I've ever seen. If they had a chance to make it out of Thailand they'd surely be living like kings.
The hilltribe trek turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment. The "hilltribe" turned out to be a very well-equipped village with satalite TV and an elaborate array of solar powered knick-knacks. I was in a group with four newly graduated British folks, two girls from Holland and an older woman from Germany. The Brits and I hung pretty close because they were just starting out on the same trip that I've been on for the past three and a half months. After being harassed by one of the village members for money for the umpteenth time we decided to go to bed early and hope for better luck on our trek the next day. I woke up early to the sound of the rooster crowing in the bleak morning light and warmed myself with a cup of tea overlooking the Thailand highcountry. Once the others were awake and we had eaten we started a huge water fight with the little children of the village. All was going well and they were definitely beating us until we put our minds together and ambushed a few of the stragglers. After everyone had been thoroughly soaked we were on our way again up and up and up through the hills to a little waterfall camp. The waterfall was beautiful and cold and refreshing after a day of hiking in the heat. Adam, Alex (two of the Brits) and I went for a journey through the jungle in the afternoon which I consider to be one of the highlights of my hike. It was so nice to be out in nature again, away from all of the pressure of Southeast Asia. That evening there was some heated discussion about the ethics of our guiding party and how visitors of a country should be treated and after having it out with one of the guides I realized that as long as money is in their pocket, there are a few people that really don't care about how they treat others. What a shame. The next day we endured an unexpected rainstorm that created little rivers around us for an hour and a half before heading to the elephants. The elephant ride was not quite what I had expected based on other travellers descriptions. We did a bumpy loop clinging to the saddle as the elephants strode through the trees and river. Elephants are huge. Our elephant seemed to have a bit of a cold based on the snot I had on me after he sneezed on my leg, yum. The elephants were pretty cool though, and the older woman from Germany who I shared an elephant with was having a blast which made the ride all the better.
Back in Chiang Mai I enrolled myself in a one-day cooking course which turned into an eat-a-thon. It was one of the most delicious experiences of my life. Everything tastes better when you make it yourself, even if it's not up to par with some fancy restaurant. After eight hours of cooking, eating, and sitting around digesting I walked away with a cookbook, a full stomach and a new outlook on life. I had met a 30-something divorced woman from Holland who basically sorted out all of my worries in life and led me towards making a fantastic last minute decision: buying a plane ticket back to Australia.
The next day I headed to immigration to have my visa renewed for two days before hoping a plane out of the country. Little did I know a few kids decided to start the Songkran (Thai New Year) festival a day early and I was soaked walking along the main street, along with my passport. All of the stamps were running in a nice inky rainbow by the time I got to the office and I could only hope that the immigration officers at the airport would accept my passport when I tried to board a plane in two days. Once my visa was renewed it was time to join the fun. The main point of the Songkran festival is to get as many people soaking wet as possible. It started from the blessing a monk would give by placing a drop of water on a persons forehead, but somewhere along the way things got a little out of hand and now Songkran is a huge waterfight. It was nice to see a festival just for the kids, no alcohol, no smoking, no holiday trinkets, just pure fun. That night I caught the night bus back to Bangkok to dive right into the heart of the Songkran festivities on Koh San Road.

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