A Little Bit of Songkran

Songkran is Thai New Year and occurs mid April, and it just so happened that my friends were arriving from the UK for a holiday. The first to arrive was Nikki, but me and Tri had decided to go for a couple of drinks before heading off to the airport and we got absolutely soaked through. Basically Thai New Year is bedlam, everywhere closes for 3 days (10 days in other places such as Pattaya) and everyone tries to soak as many people as possible with water guns, buckets and hoses. In the beginning Thai New Year was a calm ceremony where monks would use water to bless people but, somehow, over the generations it has turned into a massive water fight. There are so many people- Thais, Westerners, young, old, children and adults walking around or in trucks soaking everyone in sight or covering people’s faces in flour. Everyone has fun and takes the soaking in good spirits (can you imagine doing that anywhere else? I think not) but after three days it’s a little too much.

We arrived at the airport, soaking wet, met Nikki at arrivals and got a taxi back to the Khao San Road. As soon as we arrived, Nikki dumped her stuff, got changed and we went back to join in the party. We went to DJ Station, which is a European disco in the Silom area of Bangkok- a gay club with a mix of Thai and foreign party-goers. It is a great place to party, although it gets quite overcrowded at the weekends.

Anyway we girls were having a great time dancing with the guys but we had to go to the airport again, this time to pick up one of my best friends, Hayley. By this time it was around 4am, and as we had to leave at 5.30am we decided it would be better to stay up and go straight to the airport from the bar. I have had better ideas before this point! Anyway we had a few more drinks before leaving, once more, for the airport. When we arrived Hayley was already through immigration and waiting for us. We were absolutely pissed, something that she found quite amusing (well I hope she did). We got back to the hotel and had some much needed sleep ready for another afternoon of Songkran.

Later that day we emerged from the hotel into the throng of people on the Khao San Road- the amount of people that were partying was ridiculous, there was no room to move- so much so that we lost Hayley within 30 minutes of going out. It was actually quite scary because if any one of us had tripped and landed on the floor I am sure that we would have gotten trampled over. In fact we saw a couple of people being carted away on stretchers. Today was much the same as yesterday- it was crazy, getting soaked and caked in flour whilst drinking our way through the day. It was so much fun.

Later we all got dressed up and got a tuk-tuk to go to DJ Station again. To this day I really do not know why we got dressed up AND got a tuk-tuk, in the middle of Songkran, because Silom road was busier and crazier than the Khao San Road and the tuk-tuk dropped us quite a way from the club and we had to walk. On the way we stopped at traffic lights and promptly had a bucket of ice cold water thrown over us- we were absolutely soaked and had to go into a small bar to dry off a bit before going into DJ. We had a great time in there as usual and left at the end and went to bed at 5am.

The next day we went to the Grand Palace and shopping at MBK centre and decided to stay away from any Songkran festivities, so we walked along Silom road but there was still people partying so we walked the other way away from them and found a nice restaurant to have dinner in, followed by a few drinks in an Irish bar until we thought it was safe to return to the Khao San Road (1am being the curfew for Songkran soakings).

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is beautiful – it is located, some 12 hours bus ride from Bangkok, among the highest mountains in Thailand. It is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand, having everything that Bangkok as (more or less), but cheaper than Bangkok and a much more relaxed atmosphere.

When I first went to Chiang Mai I arrived around 3am and I had already found a hotel, that I planned to stay in- “Our House”, but the tuk-tuk man told me it was closed so he took me to prove that it was closed. I must admit I was a bit scared because it was pitch black and he was taking me down some very dark soi’s and I didn’t have a clue where I was. I was ready to practice some Muay Thai on him if he tried anything. But there was nothing to worry about because after he had showed me that the hotel was closed he took me to another one called “Plaza Inn”, which, despite appearances, was a lovely little place to stay, near to a good selection of restaurants, bars, and markets.

Today I was feeling very lost and lonely without my friends, especially Tri, who I had become very close to in a short space of time and spent most of the previous two months with. So finding myself alone I felt pretty miserable as I walked around, but during lunch I decided that I would cheer myself up by booking myself onto a tour for the next day.

So the next morning at 8am I got myself ready for a tour to Doi Ithanon National Park. There was just me and two other people from China. The guy picked me up from my hotel and we drove to the first part of the tour, which was an elephant ride. Me and said elephant had a slow walk through the forest and then splashed our way along a river, with a mahout sitting up front of course- I have no experience of controlling an elephant so didn’t think it wise to try. The elephant kept putting his trunk back towards me because he knew that I had bought some bananas for him. I thought he was just being friendly but I soon realised that it wasn’t me he was interested in, just the bananas- he didn’t stop until they had all gone. Along the forest track there were little bamboo huts in case you wanted to buy some more bananas, so I thought it polite to oblige the animal who was carting me around in the heat of the day.

The next part of the tour was bamboo rafting- literally a raft made from bamboo poles around twelve feet long, tied together with some sturdy rope. The others in my tour group were not interested in this bit so I was the only one on the raft and the guy, who was steering the thing like how you would steer a gondola but with a bamboo pole (am sure steering is not the right word but for one who knows nothing about sea or river faring vessels, that’s all I got!) every so often kept slapping the water with the pole and shouting crocodile! Hence I got very wet, even more so by a group of kids playing in the water who promptly chucked a load more water over me. In the end I thought sod this and retaliated, splashing water over the guy at the back of the raft, and over the boys in the water. It was actually really funny and had a lovely time rafting down the lazy river. Afterwards I met up with my tour friends and our driver took us to a nice little restaurant where we had lunch of veggies and rice.

After lunch we made our way up into the surrounding mountains of Chiang Mai and arrived at Doi Ithanon, which is the highest point in Thailand, some 2521 metres above sea level. The drive up to the summit was off road and quite bumpy in the 4×4 but when we got to the top it was worth the pain, because it was so beautiful and had stunning views of Chiang Mai and the surrounding countryside.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Beautiful Countryside

At certain times during the year parts of this countryside are covered in beautifully coloured flowers. On the main road to the summit of Doi Inthanon stand two Chedis against each other; one called Naphamethinidon (นภเมทินีดล), meaning ‘by the strength of the land and air’, and the other, Naphaphonphumisiri (นภพลภูมิสิริ), meaning ‘being the strength of the air and the grace of the land’. These temples were built to honour the 60th birthday anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 1987, and the 60th birthday anniversary of Queen Sirikit in 1992, respectively.

On the way back our guide, whose name was Aood, asked if I wanted to sample the local Thai culture with him and I thought why the hell not- again another random night in Thailand. So later on he picked me up from my hotel again at 7pm and we went to a little roadside bar where we had a few drinks with the locals. I even had an arm wrestle with one of them after I had told him that I had been doing Muay Thai boxing for the previous two months. Silly me thinking I could possibly win- he gave me a chance but he still won. I ended up having such a great couple of days in Chiang Mai, ending with a night out with Aood, and it made me realise that, as a solo traveller, you might feel lost or lonely sometimes, but things happen that always have a way of making you feel good again.

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Wats and Pachyderms

I had a second visit to Ayutthaya, this time with some friends, who were also in Thailand doing the “volunteer” experience. As I had been here before I didn’t want to see the same things so, whilst everyone else amused themselves taking elephant rides, I took a small group, who were happy to tag along, to Wat Phanan Choeng, which is a popular tourist attraction in Ayutthaya Historical Park.

It houses a large Buddha from 1334 CE. It is called Luang Pho Tho, and is thought of as a guardian for mariners.

There is also a traditional Thai house that you can go into and walk around. It is built on stilts to provide the area beneath the house with storage, a place to relax during the day, or to keep livestock. This is a traditional way of building Thai homes mainly due to heavy flooding during the year and, in ancient times, to prevent predators dropping in!

Traditional Thai "stilt" house — Traditional Thai “stilt” house

I gave my eager listeners a little information about the ancient city (with thanks to a copy of the Rough Guide to Thailand), and after lunch we went to Wat Yai Chaimongkol, which is situated a short truck ride away from the main city and surrounded by sprawling countryside.

The temple itself is nestled into neatly kept gardens. You can walk up the many stairs to the top of this temple, which is hard work in the heat of the day, but worth it at the top where you can get great photographic shots of the gardens and green countryside.

Also within the temple compound is an impressive white reclining Buddha, which represents the Buddha after his death.

Near to the ruined city of Ayutthaya was an elephant village, where the elephants rested after a tiring day, ferrying hordes of tourists back and forth for their enjoyment (the tourists not the elephant’s enjoyment). There are quite a few elephants housed here and you can watch them get fed, watered and taking their daily baths. There was a tiny baby one, which was very cute. I say tiny, tiny compared to its mother, but it still managed to butt me out of the way, with quite a bit of force I might add, so that I toppled backwards and landed in a pile of kee (shit). Poor thing got its own back, from being annoyed by humans, by head butting quite a few of us.

Wats and Pachyderms aside, on the way back to Singburi myself and another girl in the group, asked to stop so we could relieve ourselves. The truck stopped beside the roadside and unbeknown to us there was a mud hole and because it was dark (and we were desperate) she went flying into the mud (she went first-sniggers) and got completely covered. I followed but realised what was happening and so saved myself only to lose a flip-flop, which I managed to retrieve. Why the truck driver didn’t tell us we were only two minutes away from a service station, I still don’t know- I mean, they do this route every month with new volunteers (maybe that is why he didn’t tell us- for the amusement factor). Our co-ordinator made us get off the truck and wash the mud off because one never knows what one could catch from putrid mud in these tropical climes. And the moral of the story? Don’t go to the toilet in the dark- you never know what you might find!

Heroes and Turtles

On one of my many trips around Singburi province I visited a village called Khai Bang Rachan, which is remembered for resistance against Burmese invaders in the Burmese-Siamese War (1765-1767). One of the most prominent monuments here is the Heroes of Khai Bang Rachan monument, which remembers the villagers who bravely fought against the Burmese. There were many more troops to villagers, but it took the Burmese eight attacks before the villagers were defeated due to shortage of weapons. The monument itself stands magnificently in impeccably kept gardens.

As we wandered around the gardens we came across a local Thai women releasing turtles. This is something you see in many places throughout Thailand where you can pay money to release a turtle into the “wild”. I have done a bit of research on this and apparently this is a traditional way of merit making for most Thai’s on a lot of occasions, such as birthdays and to bring good luck. On the surface this appears to be a nice thing to do, to release a turtle into the wild, but if you look they are all cooped up in a small, bowl –like container before being “set-free”, and then caught a few hours later and put back into the container, only to be “set-free” once more for the next paying tourist. It’s supposed to provide good luck- for you maybe, but for the turtle it is deprived of a normal life and will probably end in its death. Much better to get involved with one of the many turtle conservation projects, like the one I visited on the island of Koh Mannai, off the coast of Laem Mae Phim, where you can help to care for the turtles and learn about the work they do, breeding and releasing them into the wild (properly!)

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns

Random Nights

I met so many people whilst I was in Singburi and two of those people were Dang and Wan, owners of a nearby bar which was frequented a lot. I got really friendly with them and even stayed in their house when I went back to Singburi later in the year.

Dang and Wan organised a couple of parties for us, both of which were at their house, which was opposite the bar on the other side of the river. And to get from the bar to their house the quickest, although not the easiest, way was by boat.

crossing the river 2 — Crossing the River

Their house was quite big, with a large yard at the front and a huge garden at the back and they had a stage erected in the front garden near the front gate. They had hired singers and scantily clad dancers, who became even more scantily clad as the evening wore on, much to the enjoyment of the gentlemen viewers (and some of the female ones no doubt!) That night we all got slightly (OK very) merry on copious amounts of alcohol, which we had to pay for but it was cheaper than what you would pay in a bar. There was drinking, dancing, more drinking, karaoke, nearly naked dancers, even more drinking (and if I remember rightly drinking from water guns- oh dear the things you do!)

thai dancers — Thai Dancing Girls ( and a very captive audience!)

water gun drinking — What’s wrong with a glass?

We had a really good night and a good time was had by all-dancing and drinking the night away with everyone. After the party we had gone back to the blue house to carry on partying, so in the morning we had to do the “walk of shame”. I am sure you know, but this is the term used by my friends and myself to refer to the slow walk back home still in the clothes from the night before, trying not to draw attention to yourselves but of course you do because you are staggering around and being loud because you are still slightly drunk! I have done this many, many times in the past, and not something to be proud of, but no doubt it won’t be the last time. And always you think it is “just up the road” but actually it was quite a long walk back to where we were staying so it took ages. Probably because we were walking at a snail’s pace, and had a couple of stops to quench our raging thirst with a cola-in-a-bag (another reason to love Thailand- literally your drink is served in a little plastic bag with ice in it and a straw, and all for 10 baht- about 20p!).

Drinks in bag — Soft drinks- the Thai way

Later on we went to the swimming pool in town which was a great idea, because we could nurse our hangovers and have a swim in the refreshing, cool water. However, we decided that the best way to get rid of our hangovers was hair of the dog-more beer. This remedy always, always works and is thoroughly recommended although there will be a point when you just can’t drink anymore, maybe because of work or whatever, and then the hangover will just creep up on you again, but it’s great at the time. We returned to our house later that day and went straight to Dang’s bar and proceeded to get drunk again! You know when you sometimes have those days? There is nothing to do but surrender yourself to it and have a good time.

Down the road from the bar we heard loud music and wondered where it was coming from so a few of the girls went to investigate. They came back and told us that there was a party to celebrate the ordination of a new monk and this was his farewell party before entering the temple. So being a little tipsy we decided to go and check it out and basically gate-crashed our way into the celebrations. There was more scantily clad dancers strutting their stuff on a huge stage, and loads of tables where all the party guests sat eating and drinking. Really? Half naked dancers AND copious amounts of alcohol at a monks party? Nevertheless, we got into the celebrations quickly and were dancing with the locals who were happy to hand round glasses of Thai whiskey, which is very popular amongst most Thais. You will find that the Thai people are very generous and think nothing of sharing with you and they love to party and have a good time. There was a particular woman there, who was very drunk and she kept looking at one of the girl’s (Rachel) boobs, and she kept asking for cigarettes and booze from us. She looked like she had just wandered in off the street (as we had done actually!) She even asked Rachel to go somewhere with her but Rachel politely declined and just let her get on with it.

One of the beauty’s of Thailand is that sometimes random things happen, like this party or going to watch boxing matches with Thai families, things that you would never do at home and things that the “normal” tourist wouldn’t do, and for me it is these things that make you fall in love with the place.

Kanchanaburi

During my time in Singburi, the weeks were taken up with boxing but we were free to do as we like at the weekends. So one particular weekend we decided to go to Kanchanaburi, some 3 hours away. When we arrived we went straight to Erewan National Park, which is absolutely beautiful. We trekked our way through the dense jungle and climbed to the very top of the seven tier waterfall.

This waterfall is one of the biggest and most beautiful in Thailand, and it is one of Thailand’s natural treasures. You may recognise it, even if you have never been there, because it is normally the one that is depicted on postcards that you can buy everywhere. The trail through the jungle starts nice and flat but then as it winds up into the mountains parts of it are quite steep, but strategically placed ladders makes climbing a little easier. However, the higher you go there are also parts where some scrambling over rocks and some stream walking are required.

Erewan's Stunning Pools — Erewan’s Stunning Pools

It was absolutely stunning and had never seen anything like it before. We passed swimmers in the lower tiers, which were much bigger than the pools higher up, and we saw other people trekking like we were.

Half way through our trek, we came across a checkpoint where we had to register, so they knew who was in the park, and also pay a small charge of 10 baht for each plastic water bottle we were carrying. The idea is that when you return and show them you still have the water bottle, you get your money back- a way to stop people dropping litter in an ecological area.

Nearer the top, we started to walk up the middle of the waterfall, which was quite slippy in places, but as it wasn’t the rainy season we were able to do this because the water level was quite low. I yet need to return to see this waterfall in full flow because I can imagine that it will be quite impressive, not that it isn’t anyway, and even in the dry season there was still enough water so you could slide down parts of it.

At the seventh tier the water cascaded into the pool and we managed to get behind the cascading water and chill out in the cool water. There were fish in the pools as well and they nibbled away at our feet, which gave us quite a shock at first and there was many screams, from the boys and as well as the girls! There are places all over Asia now that have pools of fish (actually much smaller fish than the ones at Erewan) where you can pay for them to nibble the dead skin off you feet but why go there when you can have a free one at Erewan! I wondered at the time how the fish come to be in the top tier- maybe their eggs cascade down from a higher source.

The next day I went to the Death Railway museum, which was very interesting but also very sad to be reminded how the POW’s got treated during the building of the railway. The museum has loads of photographs, which actually made me almost burst into tears, showing the state of the undernourished men, and the conditions they had to work in. There was 6 gallery’s showing such things as the design and construction of the bridge, the geography of the railway, and life in the camps.

800px-Kanchanaburi_cemetery — War Cemetery

Over the road from the museum there is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, also known as the Don-Rak War Cemetery. This is the main war cemetery here and there are 6,982 POW’s buried here, mostly Australian, British and Dutch. Two of the graves contain the ashes of 300 men who were cremated, and there are names of 11 from India who are buried in Muslim cemeteries. All the graves are situated in an impeccably kept garden, and walking round you notice that most of the men that died were under 25 years old.

A feeling of humbleness comes across you as you remember the suffering these soldiers had to tolerate during the war.