Chiang Rai to Mae Sai - Cabbages and Condoms, Songkran Soaking, Sunset on the Burmese Border

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Day 39-April 13th: It is officially the first day of Sonkran - Thai New Year - and there are people throwing water EVERYWHERE! All my valuables were kept in a plastic bag for the next few days. I walked (carefully) around town, thankfully in the early daytime there are less people throwing water. The masses of water-throwing people take to the streets in the afternoon and evening. I only had one day in Chiang Rai, so I packed in what sights I could:
- the clock tower: under reconstruction
- Wat Phra Kaew: the Emerald Buddha, the most revered Buddha in Thailand, was once housed here; now there is a replacement Emerald Buddha and the original is now housed in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.
- TAT office: got myself a good map of the area and good info; got a jasmine laurel from the staff as a New Year's gift: got wet outside the office, courtesy of the TAT staff; everyone is wearing floral "Hawaiian" shirts for New Year's, I really need to get one too!
- PDA Hilltrive Museum: info and goods from the hill tribes of Thailand; it was a pretty basic museum, BUT they had some good info on the hill tribes and their customs, and some great info on the history of opium farming/production and heroin production/usage.
- Cabbages and Condoms: I ate at this restaurant on the ground floor of the museum. It's part of a chain around Thailand, they make local dishes and presumably give away condoms and they donate some of their profits to HIV/AIDS prevention.

The employees of Cabbages and Condoms were outside throwing water and had a kiddie pool filled with water for their kids. It's a major public holiday, so everyone was drinking all day and socializing and having a jolly time throwing water. I took a few photos but had to be very careful! As soon as I went outside the restaurant, someone poured water down my back! I practically had to run back to Baan Bua - I dodged water on every street and around every corner! I did get wet, of course, it was unavoidable! Crowds of people filled the street and every pickup truck that went by, the people in the trucks and the people on the sides of the roads were throwing buckets of water at each other and shooting water from water guns and everyone was laughing and enjoying the game! It's a wonder that there aren't more accidents on the roads (maybe there are?) from all the water throwing. Bikes and motorcycles and cars and trucks all getting soaked and soaking the bystanders right back!

A note about Songkran: The tradition of water throwing dates back to ... a long time ago when monks would sprinkle water on people during the New Year holiday as a sign of washing away the past year and welcoming the new year. Over time, this gentle splashing/cleansing ritual evolved into today's massive water throwing/drenching competition. Madness!

I wanted to take the afternoon bus to Mae Sai, so I grabbed my backpack from the guesthouse and I managed to get to the nearby bus station safely and mostly dry - I think they aren't supposed to throw water at the tourists carrying large backpacks or something. Once I was on the bus (the bus to Mae Sai is frequent and cheap, so I just showed up and got on), the water throwing commenced! Everyone on the bus shut all the windows, and it's a good thing because the entire journey we got water thrown at us by roadside revelers!

Once I was in Mae Sai, I took a motorcycle taxi - big backpack and all - to the Mae Sai Guesthouse, just down the lane from the Myanmar (f.k.a. Burma) border. The driver managed to stop people along the way from throwing water on us by putting up his hand. I think there's some signal that the taxi drivers give that's basically meant to hold off the locals from drenching the motorcycle. I appreciated his efforts, since I was traveling with all my belongings. I arrived at this idyllic setting along the river that divides Thailand and Myanmar. The view was fantastic, serene, picturesque, lovely. I checked into my hut-for-one by the river - so cute! so cozy! I walked out to the main road by the Myanmar border - and got soaked along the way, of course! There's a market there, but not much else to see. Basically it's a typical border town. I walked back to the Mae Sai Guesthouse for some dinner and to watch the sunset. It was actually a cool night, thankfully, so after watching the sunset, I took a hot shower and went to bed early.

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