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Published: April 24th 2008
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Even though we all thoroughly enjoyed our time in Laos and Cambodia, we all said we kind of missed Thailand in a strange way, I guess when you've spent 6 weeks in a country you feel like you know it well, you get used to the currency etc...(let me just tell you that in the last 2 weeks I've gone from Bhat, to Kip, to Riel and US Dollars thrown in for good measure! You start to lose track of what's a good deal and what isn't!) Anyway, so we left Siem Reap and knew we had a mammoth journey that day to get accross the border and all the way to Bangkok but it was another pretty horrendous journey. To start with, the road between Siem Reap and the Thai border is nothing more than a dirt track with half-finished bridges, apparantly the governement have purposely kept it that way so as to force people into flying instead. We were meant to be getting a 'VIP' air con coach (well, I think we just have to accept that it never happens!) we were crammed in a falling apart minibus again and had luggage all down the gangway and certainly no
air con. One guy had a massive argument with the driver who was driving whilst on the phone too, but this was just the start of it. After about 5 hours we arrived at the border (midday heat time) we had to queue for 3 hours in total to get accross and there was no shade, can you imagine standing in 45 degrees heat with your big rucksack on your back and seeing that the queue is hardly moving?! It was horrible, but we had no choice otherwise we'd lose our place in the queue. Anyway, we finally made our way to the Thai side of the crossing and met up with some of the others that were on our bus and would be getting the next bus with us to Bangkok. We noticed they had yellow badges on saying 'Bangkok' so Wiz went to enquire where we would get ours. We were informed that the bus was full and that we would have to wait untill 5pm for the next bus (2 hours wait) I put my foot down at this point which I rarely do but we managed to get our badges and get on the bus....unfortunately this
did mean that some people got on and there weren't seats so they were given the option of waiting 2 hours or sitting in the aisle on their bags...they chose the latter which did make me feel a little guilty. Anyway after another 5 hours or so we reached Bangkok.
We decided to get there on the 12th as we knew Songkran started on the 13th (clever us getting there the day before?!) But we didn't realise that the festivities had already begun and people were squirting the windows of our bus as we edged closer and closer to Koh San road...not so clever after all! Also, we had been foolish enough to book into a guest house ON Koh San road. So there we are, the 3 of us making our way down Koh San road and the middle of a massive waterfight at 8pm with all our luggage!! Fantastic start!! Funny to look back at now though and we didn't really get too wet. So Songkran is traditionally the Thai New Year which is why it's such a big deal and the throwing of water originated as a way of washing the 'bad' away and also to
pay respect to people and wish them 'luck', by gently pouring a SMALL amount of water on each other. This tradition then evolved to using the water to relieve the heat (April is the hottest month in Thailand) and the emphasis is now on fun and is basically just one HUGE waterfight. Not only does water get thrown around in plenty there is also 'flouring' that goes on; basically the water is mixed with flour to produce a white gooey mess that people then smear over each other, and generally this is your face!! Koh San road is rife with Westerners throwing water and a bit of flouring goes on but the street parallel to Koh San is where all the locals go and you can be sure to get floured here so we called it 'flour street!'
The first couple of days we all got totally immersed into getting wet and covered with flour...there were quite a few of us in the end as we had met up with one of Wiz's friends and also some of the people we had met at the Eco House so it made it all the more fun. We then wanted to
leave on the evening of the second day so we could head down to Koh Tao for a few days before the full moon party, but we had left it too late and all the buses were full so we had to stay another night and leave the following day. This was where being at a guest house on Koh San Road was not such a great idea afterall...we'd kind of had enough of getting wet wherever you went and wanted a rest from it, but of course there is no rest from it! The worst bit was actually leaving on the evening of the 15th, the last day (supposedly) of Songkran we had to walk for half an hour with our rucksacks through the streets of Bangkok, having just had a shower and contemplating a 12 hour overnight journey, we were not so thrilled when we got wet and had flour smeared in our hair. We were even less thrilled when we actually reached our point for the bus pick-up and had to sit for 3 and a half hours on the pavement with all our belongings!! By this point we were all weary and fed up with Songkran...don't
get me wrong it's so much fun when you're in it, but when you're not wanting to get wet and dirty, however much you protest it makes no difference to those that are armed!!!! I think there's a theme coming with all these journeys too!!
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mum
non-member comment
Evaporation produces cooling!
Water fights look crazy - suppose you end up going with the flow, ha,ha! Your curls are getting better and better - love them! (and you, too!) Mum xx