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Published: April 15th 2006
Sawat di Ka and sawat bi mai!
translation: hello and happy new year. Thai new year that is! April 13-15 in Thailand is the craziest experience. Water, water and more water. The thai's celebrate the new year in style. On april 13th, we taxied it down to thong sala for to join in the biggest water fight we have ever seen and/or experienced. madness. the taxis here are really pick up trucks that you ride in the back of (covered or uncovered), on these crazy mudpacked roads. Thai people stand on teh sides and chuck buckets of water on you or shoot water guns. Then.... we get to the main strip of thongsala and it is mad party everywhere. from young to old, everyone is in the streets... dancing to throbbin - almost lunatic psy trance. (not that good if you like this music), but nonetheless, very deafening. wet in about t minus 3 minutes. not just wet, drenched. and it continues. (good thing that we had everything in plastic ziplocks.... long live the ziplock). the party runs all day... and continues into evening. baby powder is another thai favorite, once you are soaked, they come along and either throw it on you or rub it on your cheeks. amazing experience! till the end when we got accosted by the 180 year old 1 armed thai man... super nice in the beginning, however, wow dude. get away from my lips.
Once the sun went down, headed off to Longbeach to enjoy some thai grub and warm up for the full moon party with a few ... you guessed it, Singhas (thai beer). then we were off for the 45 minute ride to haadrin beach.
few words about this party. big dissapointment. massive crowds for sure, cool fire signage... but in short, very poor rating in our books. No name djs, wide eyed lunatics, bad sound systems and super dirty. garbage everywhere. Stayed until the sunrise... got some cool pics from the roof of a thai house, but thats about it....ohhh and the fire throwers were amazing. little kids, like max of 6 whirlin the battons around. couldnt believe it.
The last few days have been awesome! we have seen so much and had a chance to adjust to the island life - thai time. nothing runs on time, pace of life is just like - whatever. you order your food in groups and they bring it out to you when it is ready, not all together. kinda weird at first. they have one pot, cook first meal, then wash, then start on teh next. could be a time lag of at least 45 mins between first person being served and last person being served... if you get served. had the experience of my food being forgotten one night. completely. the food is amazing though. very spicy most of the time, but so good. the pinapple and mango melt in your mouth... and for you people at work you wont believe the price of mangos... works out to like 10 cents canadian. nice. The street vendors are everywhere, you can get chicken that looks like rubber if you like, maggots, cochroaches (sorry bout my spelling), and things you are afraid to ask about. Thong sala smells like fish, lots of fish and rotting produce (garbage is dumped in teh streets).
We havent had too much luck with the wildlife yet... there was a scorpion in our bathroom the other morning (jen got to shower with it... he got a peep show), then there was the infamous gekko, which is my favorite... he cries out once in awhile... loudly and calls his own name... "GEK ---- KOOO", seriously, that is what it sounds like, so he is a favorite in our books.
we actually saw one today... pretty big, about maybe 3/4 of a foot long.
Yesturday we all decided to rent a jeep and tour around - ryan at the wheel (remember, you drive on the wrong side (like there is a "right side" of the road and the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car), very interesting indeed for those of you who have driven with ryan before you know what i mean. ha, sorry ry. so, like the good canadian folk we are (trusting), we have no idea that the jeep comes empty. (very common thing for me to do)... so there we were driving at night.. "thought" that we were on the right road heading back, and clunk... clunk... uh oh... WTF, done. have to push the jeep to the side of the abandoned jungle road... little house in sight but of course no one home. So, executive decision made, jenn and ryan head to town to figure out if it is gas or something else... basically get help from teh dudes who rented it to us, and myself and johan (the guy we met from swedan), stay and hold down the fort. ....
Jenn and ryan's side.... they get into thong sala, find the dudes and head off to get a gerry can...., find the gas station and try to find us... however, because we thought that we were on teh right road... they couldnt find us, because... ha... we werent....
Sarah and Johan's side... duh. WTF are they... 1 hour in, the jungle is gettin pretty scary... trippin on teh insane jungle noises... so much, the insects here (only know their name in swedish is shusa), they are soooo loud its almost deafening and there is no break in the sound, it is continuous, almost like a background beat. when you listen long enough... you always hear new ones too, it was really awesome... 1 hour and a half in... we are ready to leave, but wait, dont have a pen to leave a message at the vehicle...
Jenn and ryan.... jenn is not feeling well (going to vomit cause they cannot find us), driving around with these 2 local guys cruising teh roads... who are laughing at the tourists... are they laughing cause they cant find their friends or ... for another reason....(these guys had really broken english)..
Sarah and johan.... 1 hour 45 in... i know, lets write on teh jeep in mud... a mud message so they know that we will be safe... then lets book it. flag a taxi (pick up truck) down and the woman turns out to be the cousin of the guys who rented us the jeep. nice. she calls them. they are on their way in 5 mins.
all of us... totally bagged, totally tired. totally dehydrated (ryan took the water with him). and hungry. but, safe and unscarred.. except for the mysterious rash developing on my arms now. hmmm.. could be heat.
Jenn and i just took the ferry over to krabi, the other side where the tsnami hit. Amazing beauty on teh way over... humid air that drips.. yet the breeze is refreshing.. but you get used to it... turqouise blue mixed with dark blue strips througout the sea.... limestone jutouts blanketed with bright green vegetation... clouds that hang like 30 feet above the water... awesome people from every country... (we will tell you about alex next time). palm trees, coconuts... it is like heaven, paradise IS THE ONLY WORD (minus the bathrooms - no TP, have to pay in most places and they are like a foot off the ground). I have had a couple of bouts with the thai stomach... so its called, but nothing too serious... jenn has escaped it so far. We are seriously working on our tans.
Thanks for all the comments everyone... we love hearing from you and we miss you all too! tomorrow we are headed to explore this side of thailand (near where they filmed the movie the beach) so will have updates for you soon. ps. jenn is staying now... never coming home, she has a thai boyfriend... TBC.
S&J out.
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judy wagner
non-member comment
too funny!
Have been keeping Bob informed with the escapades, as we have been there! He says you are going to get killed if you don't take it a bit easier.......please keep the blogs coming. It is too good! Judy