99 Ways To Beat The Heat

# 38 Have a week-long water fight & make it a national holiday...

Every April in Thailand brings the traditional Thai New Year called Songkran. It is a time to bless the elderly & the monks by sprinkling water on them...and has progressed to an all-out water fight.

This year, the official holiday fell on the 13-15th, but the festivities often start the week before & last for about two weeks. Chaing Mai is the place to be if you want to get crazy (a little like New Orleans for Mardi Gras) so we decided to head over to check it out.

I packed all of my stuff in plastic garbage bags just to be safe & I was glad I did! When we got to Chaing Mai, we grabbed a songtao to take us to our hotel. The back of the songtao was enclosed, so we figured that we would be safe. Boy were we wrong. The first light we stopped at, we had people jumping onto the back of the songtao & dumping buckets of water on us, at the same time, someone opened one of the windows and stuck a hose inside...we were soaking and it we hadn't even been in the city for 30 min!

Some pics...

This is on the main road.

Even the kids get soaked!

Sarah & Cale

Everyone gets wet!

Tara & Cale

Some of the Peace Corps crew...

Garrett

Cale

Motorcycles are the worst form of transportation during Songkran.

Here's a "lady-boy" having a blast!

Tina & Liz

They put barrels in the back of trucks & splash people as they drive by.

The guys in their crazy Songkran shirts.

Even though April is the hottest month in Thailand, I would definately recommend coming just to get wet! It was a blast!

Wedding

So they've changed something at the office, and my internet connection is 100x faster than it used to be...which means that I can now post videos! Here's a short clip from a wedding I went to a few months ago.

Old People Dancing

A few months ago, my office had an event for the older people in the village. They played games, did health screenings, did a blessing, and did some dancing & singing. I took a brief video of the dancing (and you may be able to hear the singing). Hope you enjoy!

Krabi

A few months ago, a couple of friends and I decided to take a little trip down south to the beach. We met up in Chaing Mai & decided to take a train to Bangkok then fly from Bangkok to Krabi. Well, they only had 3rd class tickets available on the train...we had heard horror stories about the 3rd class train, but we decided what the hell...it'll be a new experience.

It was HELL!!!

Here is the train station. We left at 2:45 in the afternoon.

Our seat.

The train.

The only thing we could do was drink beer...

This pic was taken about 6 hours into the trip.

We got into Bangkok at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, that makes about 15 hours on the train. I will never do that again!

We got to Krabi & it was all worth it. Krabi was amazing! We relaxed on the beach.

Went snorkeling. And had fun drinks on the beach.

It was wonderful. I like Krabi sooo much better than Phuket!

Roommates

I've had a few roommates the past couple of months. I walked into the kitchen a month or so ago & found this guy.

Then a few weeks later, this guy jumped out at me after finishing my shower...scared me half to death!

Randoms

A few random pics...

Drinking buckets in Chaing Mai. I lost those glasses that night.

We found this sign at one of the temples.

Anton all dressed up.

The Big 29!

So June 6th was my 29th birthday. It was a difficult one with my Grandpa's passing, but the day itself was pretty nice.

I spent the day planting trees with my work. It was really nice & very interesting (I've never seen someone plant trees wearing highheels before). Anyway, here are some pics...