Wrapping up Koh Samui with some video and a teaser for Chiang Mai and Songkran

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[youtube=Q0-Efo3RWG0][youtube=mGAR8Sokl7U][youtube=dV-TiGPxQY4]

Helllllooooo everybody. We're in Chiang Mai now and it's lovely. Claire and I arrived on Sunday afternoon. Monday morning we hit the streets to find jobs (and the internet). We have been spending so much time looking for work that we have not taken one photo of this great city even though it looks like it will be our new home for a decent amount of time. We will definitely get some photos going on and...we've come at a great time of year.

The Songkran festival, aka the Thai new year, is set to begin on the 13th and last until the 15th. Of course many businesses and schools celebrate longer (take more days off work). This means Claire and I have a vacation. It sounds like everything will just be shut down and people will be celebrating.

By celebrating I mean cleaning their houses, remembering ancestors, bringing sand to temples to replace the sand that 's been taken away by their feet over the past year, parading statues of Buddha through the street and pouring water on them for cleansing, and of course...throwing water on everybody all over the street and hopping in the moat that surround the old city. That's right. This is seen as a cleansing time of year and throwing water on people is great. Apparently it wasn't always so huge, the soaking people with water thing, but I guess it's an evolution. We will get soaked...many times by giant squirt guns. I have heard that they have clamped down on dousing motorbike drivers in the face as they speed by. Sounds like a wise move.

So for this entry we're going to wrap up Samui with a few videos. It only took me thirty-something days to remember that my little camera has video capability...I'm quick, what can I say.

Yeah, so we took three, no...four videos. I'm only going to do three right now and they are all linked from youTube because the video stuff on this blog site is not up and running yet.

The first video is of our hotel and room. Well there may be another video of the front entrance but I know I won't get it up on this blog. Anywho, yeah, it's kind of boring and the sound is bad cause it's a tiny camera and it was pouring out. It will give you a good idea of what our hotel was like, which was pretty nice for $10 bucks a day on the most touristy island in Thailand (that rhymes).

The second video is of an adorable little Thai girl who was at our hotel when we were just hanging out and goofing around with our Swedish friend Fred. The hotel "lobby" was outdoors and it's where we took our computer for internet access. Claire decided to interview this young lady. It's nice.

The final video is a tongue in cheek interview with Fred (the Swede) about how much he loves America. Fred gave us a hard time throughout the whole course about being American and all that crap. It was kind of funny. We always told him he was just jealous because our government would come rescue us if there was a big disaster and his would...well...I guess just watch polar bears roam through the streets of their cities. Anyways, we were bored, it was Fred's last hour on the island with us and we had a camera. And, as a disclaimer, Claire and I do not hate America nor do we hate guns or bald eagles. It's just that stereotype of America seems to be alive and well with some and...well, it's just funny. We do, however, hate tuna floss...you'll understand if it's ever served to you.

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