Sawatdee Bai Mai - Songkran In Chiang Mai!

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Sawatdee bai mai everyone!!! (Happy New Year!!!) ... we have just finished with 3 days of crazy Songkran celebrations! Where do I even start?! Its a bit of a blur... and yes I am sooo behind in my blogs..

Songkran is the Thai New Year and they celebrate by having massive water fights in the street for 3 days - you do get a bit over the whole water thing after about... hmmmm.... 24 hours but hey its all part of the experience!! They also have a high death/injury rate during this time... In the first two days of celebrations there were 97 deaths and almost 1000 injuries! IN JUST TWO DAYS (statistics courtesy of Bangkok Post newspaper!)

Water Fights and Weird Rashes

I woke up on Saturday to a couple of weird looking bites on my leg... not thinking much of it, I ignored it and put it down to insect bites.. they looked cross between a mosquito bite and a pimple... We got ready and headed out for breakfast at the Wall.. a little restaurant I have been to a few times over my previous visits. Its great. Afterwards we headed to Rama Guesthouse. Rama is owned by Tim and Tony (the same guys who own our guesthouse CM Blue). We were celebrating the start of Songkran there with them. We went in search of a watergun for Amelia (I had bought mine the previous night). We both had massive guns! We filled them with water at the shop and were pretty wet by the time we made it to Rama!

At Rama they have a bar/restaurant that opens out on to the street. They had set up a makeshift bar right at the door with a keg of Chang Beer and lots of loud tunes! Awesome. We spent the rest of the day drinking 150 baht jugs of Chang and having waterfights with every person that walked/drove past! Very fun. In the end we gave up on our guns and were using buckets to pour over any poor unsuspecting person that had happened to risk walking down the street. Craziness!

We finished up about 5 in the afternoon, soaking wet and cold! Unknown to me, the dirty thai water wasnt doing anything good for my 'bites'. After we had dried off we caught a tuktuk to the Night Bizarre for some shopping fun! I bought a couple of watches (Rolex 700 baht & D&G ladies watch 500 baht) as well as some other bits and pieces... We ate at one of the massive food court areas... so so cheap! Had thai green chicken curry, rice, pad thai, spring rolls and chiang mai sausage (didnt like that ewww). With full bellies and empty purses we headed home for an early night.

New Tattoos!!!

Day 2 I woke up and discovered my 'bites' were still there so decided to go get something for it.. before leaving I was looking through my purchases from the night before and decided to change the time on my new watches.. it was then I discovered that the Rolex wasnt working.. I couldnt get the hands to change time.. we tried everything but couldnt work out how to do it.. I was so mad... I felt completely ripped off!!! Wait till I found him tonight!!!

We walked down to Canyon Coffee near Taepae Gate for breakfast. I stopped in at the Pharmacy where I got some cream for my 'bites'. At this stage they were really red about 3 cm in diameter around them and my leg was hurting to walk! We had an amazing breakfast of pancakes and shakes and decided that we would try avoid the waterfights for the day! We decided to get bamboo tattoos. I spent some time doing the Elephant blog and then we went to the Wall again for lunch. The internet cafe was straight across the street from the Wall and we were soaked trying to go even 20 meters!

Afterwards I went back to the internet cafe for more blogging and Amelia stayed and met some American guys who she had drinks with. When we were both finished we met up for a thai massage then had showers before heading to the Sunday Walking Markets..

This market is MASSIVE. We wandered around for about 2.5 hours and still hadnt seen everything. I ate my way through trying some pork balls bbq'd (yuck) and a cup of corn... so good! We also tried these mini egg pancake things.. cant remember the name of them but had them once before in Bangkok. Yummy! From the Sunday walking markets we headed back to the Night Bizarre to find my watch guy.. I was determined to get a working Rolex!!

I went to about 4 stalls accusing them of selling me a rip off watch and they were all like "no we no sell that watch here" ... so frustrating as I couldnt remember which stall it was... then I finally found him. As soon as I saw the guy I knew it was him... he was really nice though and showed me how to change the time.. I just wasnt doing it right... he then goes "see I no rip you off, now you buy another watch! I give you special price!!" I found a gorgeous Bvlgari watch and paid 500 baht. Pretty happy with myself we left and found another Pharmacy. My leg was still hurting so I decided to get a 2nd opinion... The Pharmacist promised me that my leg wouldnt fall off and gave me a different cream! Confusion over what to do was starting to set in!! LOL. Tired and grumpy about my leg we headed home.

Is My Leg Going to Fall Off?!

Day 3 I woke to 3 more 'bites' in the surrounding area of my leg. Really getting worried I went back to the Pharmacist who told me the thai water was making it more infected and I was to stay out of the water all day (GREAT! The biggest waterfight day of them all and I have to avoid getting wet!!). She gave me a different cream to try and then we went to Pinkys for breakfast... this place is FANTASTIC. Tucked down a little side alley and hidden from view it has the yummiest biggest brekkies! I had a breakfast burrito which was scrambled egg with salsa, tomato, onion, jalepenos and ham all wrapped up in a tortilla.. served with fried potatos! Only 95 baht!!

We ran down to Rama afterwards trying to avoid as many waterfights as we could by sticking to the back allleys.. I had to bolt from a few 5yo's! Man they are fast!! LOL. Once at Rama we settled in for the day drinking 150 baht jugs of Chang Beer and Amelia got outside into the water fights. I figured my leg was more important so I sat at the bar near the front and became the days official photographer. Met a few nice travellers who I could chat to which was nice.

After the waterfights had stopped we headed back to the Wall for dinner, then Amelia headed off to get another tattoo. I was going to add to mine as well but wasnt happy with the design so have decided to leave it until I get to Patong. I went for a foot massage and Amelia headed back to Rama where she met up with some people we had met over the past few days, to head out for the night (I really am getting old!!).

Anyway that is all for now.... stay tuned for the next blog to see if we survive getting through Bangkok to make our way down south... the protests are in full force and we have to fly to Bangkok then get the train out to Surat Thani.... Always an adventure just around the corner.....

Love to all
Reet xxx

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Photos

Making friends in all the right places
This is Bob the policeman!

Worth the end result!
At least this time I know its spelt right!!

Marita and Marieke
Hehehehe!

Comments

[phill64]

Reet im no doctor but i reckon you got biten by a spider in your bedroom ! And too late now but wrapping your bite up in say gladwrap would of kept it dry. And show us a pic of Amelis tattoo . Love the blogs , keep them coming ! Phill

[Tribbiani]

Afroman!
Stumbled across your blog when I googled "afroman tattoo". I got one done there in june '08 then ended up in the bar where he fronts a band. Fair to say he's a far better tattoo artist than singer! Did you get a chance to hear him? Think I'll probably go for another one next time I'm in Chiang Mai coz I was really happy with the work he done. Nice guy as well and he had the coolest little dog if I remember correctly! Altho it did pee on the floor when I was in!

[WanderlustTarrants]

Afro man
Hey hey nah never got to hear him sing but he did have a really cool dog and did a great job on my tattoo.. its settled nicely.. may head back for another next time I am in town! x