Happy New Year!

Last week was the traditional Thai New Year which means: Songkran Festival! We got the entire week off of school so I took the opportunity to spend the time with my Thai host family whom I lived with for about 5 weeks in Chiang Mai. I arrived early in the morning after a ten hour overnight bus ride to the Chiang Mai bus station, where my host mom and youngest sister (Fai) picked me up. It felt SO GOOD to see them. They came running towards me and gave me a big hug. I had almost forgotten how incredible they are, not to mention how much of a giant I feel like in their presence. They took me back to the house where I found Fern, who is still the best person at teaching me and forcing me to use my Thai. The 4 of us girls had a fabulous day of catching up, eating, and shopping. Then for dinner, we met my host dad as well as the ISDSI student that my family hosted earlier this semester at a restaurant for dinner. By the way, one of the many reasons why I was looking forward to coming back up to Chiang Mai was the food. Even just the idea of eating 3 actual meals was enough to get me excited. And the thought of a home cooked meal around a kitchen table seemed like paradise. Plus, I always liked having my host family there to pick out food for me because I know I ate a lot of things that way which I would have otherwise never chosen myself. So what did I eat my first day in this fabulous setting? Well, throughout the day I had: congealed blood, chicken liver, oysters, the biggest prawns I've ever seen, and frog. I guess in all my excitement I kind of overlooked the fact that I also get served some pretty wild stuff when I'm with these people. It really didn't matter though, I was so happy to be there.

The next day was the first of the three official holiday days. So we celebrated in true Chiang Mai fashion. We loaded the bed of the pickup truck with three giant buckets and used a hose to fill them all with water. Fai, Fern, and I plus 4 family friends climbed into the bed also, with our small pails in hand. Meh, Paw, and one other adult sat in the front of the car. On our way to the center of the city we stopped to buy HUGE bricks of ice to put in our big buckets. We were all set to join the world's most ridiculous water fight. You may remember, Chiang Mai is an extremely old city. Originally, it was built in a square with fortifying brick walls and a moat surrounding it. Segments of the wall still remain as ruins while the moat is still intact, which is quite convenient fo rthis particular holiday. The sidewalks in between the road and the moat were just packed. They were lined with vendors selling water guns, pails, ice, sunglasses, food, drinks, etc. But in fornt of and in between all the vendors are people just out to play. They have everything from high powered water guns to dinky squirt guns, although most people just have pails with long strings attached so that they can easily lower the pail into the moat to refill it. This is why having the moat is so great-- an infinite, free supply of water for everyone. And the streets were packed as well. Many cars were like us, pickups armed with plenty of water and plenty of people to throw the water. Many were motorcycles, defenseless and vulnerable unless they had a water gun yielding passenger. Some were the covered pickup taxis in which passengers attempted (but often failed) to hide and take cover in. Some were regular ol' cars. And some were tuk-tuks hired by foreigners for the occasion-- bucket of water included. Traffic moved only a couple of miles per hour or was stopped completely on the streets around the moat. But I'd take this traffic jam over Bangkok's any day. And so this is the setting of Songkran in Chiang Mai. There is no escaping. I was completely soaked in under ten minutes. Some people are extra gentle and simply sprinkle a handful of water over your shoulder as they walk by. This is rare. More likely, an entire pail of water is thrown on you from someone standing on the sidewalk or from a neighboring car. Or you receive a continuous, probing stream of water on your back from a water gun. Or you are momentarily blinded after being sprayed in the face. Or you are in shock after being doused with freezing cold ice water. You may think a splash of ice water would feel good and refreshing on a 100 degree day, but the thing is you are already sopping wet. All that the ice water does is send shivers down your spine and take your breath away. I have no right to complain, though, seeing as we stopped to buy ice at least three times. And whenever we ran out of water, we would simply pull over and refill our buckets from the moat. At first, I'll admit, I was a bit hesitant to start pouring ice water all over strangers. But no worries, I soon got the hang of it. It was especially satisfying to get revenge on someone who had targeted you-- which happened quite often to me, given that I am white. So basically, the celebration is incredible. I would look out onto the street ahead of our car and simply be in awe. Various businesses had stages set up along the road, promoting this or that by dancing, playing music, giving away free stuff, etc. People were swimming in the moat and even jumping off of the old ruins about 5 meters high into the water. And all you could see were people and cars and water being splashed and sprayed and poured and thrown in every imaginable direction. And although the hub of all the activity is around the moat, you really are not safe anywhere in the city. Because along any road, from the smallest side streets to the biggest highways, there are always people out waiting with water in hand to splash across your windshield or onto your motorcycle. Or if you go out shopping, you must be prepared for a handful of water on your shoulder. It's everywhere and gets everyone. And this goes on ALL WEEK LONG. If there's one thing I've learned in Thailand, it's that Thais know how to celebrate.

Traditionally, the Songkran holiday is a time for Thais to go back to where they are from and be with their families. Furthermore, it is a time when Thais pay respect to their elders, especially the oldest generation of their family or even recently deceased family members. Since both my host mom and dad are from Lampang and both of their families still live their, we drove the two hours to Lampang the next morning. My host grandmother, who lives with my family in Chiang Mai, was already there so I got to see her upon our arrival. She was so excited to hear me say a few limited sentences in Thai, since she knows no English. So those next couple of days were spent shuffling back and forth between Paw's family and Meh's family, meaning we were constantly in the company of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, great-grandmothers, great aunts, great uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. In other words, there was a lot of family. And little English. If there is one thing I've gotten good at in Thailand, it's being able to entertain myself while everyone else around engages in a conversation that i cannot understand.

But I loved being with all of the family and I loved seeing the more traditional side of the holiday. We continued to have water fights with the neighbors throughout the next few days, but I also participated in the other ways in which Thais celebrate their New Year. One evening, Paw, Fai, and I walked down the road to the river where we filled up our pails with sand. We then walked to the temple and dumped out the sand into a giant mold of a pagoda. It is an ancient belief that every time you leave the temple, your shoes take some sand away with them. So once a year you need to bring sand back to the temple to replace what you have taken away. You are supposed to do this three times, as with many other Buddhist traditions: one time for Buddha, once for his teachings, and once for the monkhood. Then the next morning, I went with my family around to 12 different houses in the neighborhood, all of which had old people living in them. Each elder gave the same blessing, in Sanskrit, to us while we all sat on the floor in a wai. The blessing, I am told, is to wish you good luck in the coming year. Each house has people constantly coming and going, meaning that the elders repeat their message for each new group that comes to see them. It was a great tradition to be a part of. Everyone was so welcoming and excited to have me. Also at each house, was food. Of course my host mom wanted me to try practically everything so I was pretty full after the 12 houses and it was still before 10 AM. When that was finished with, we headed to the temple. There, we found a small parade forming outside its gates with Thai people singing and dancing and playing music and DRINKING. Songkran is also, by the way, essentially a week-long, country-wide drinking binge. It's actually pretty bad, as over 200 people died throughout the country that week due to alcohol related accidents. Anyways, I was dragged into the celebration and forced to join in their drunken dancing which was pretty funny, I must admit. And I was completely soaked in no time with water, especially considering I was the only foreigner in sight. They marched into the temple grounds at which point they had to get rid of their drinks (you can't actually drink inside a Buddhist temple, but you can be drunk, apparently). And they continued to march around the temple three times. I managed to escape the parade and watch the rest from the sidelines with my host mom. We actually left before they finished, since they were moving quite slowly. And we went home to enjoy a long siesta after our busy morning, which is really all you can do when it is 100 some degrees out.

Being with all of that family was a great break from school life in Bangkok. I got to help cook dinner with Fern and one of her aunts. And I got to look through countless photo albums of weddings and travels and graduations of various family members. But it also reminded me a lot of holidays back home and celebrating with my own family, not to mention speaking English. All things that I am really missing. We returned to Chiang Mai on Friday morning and my bus for Bangkok left at 9 PM that night. On the drive back to Chiang Mai, we stopped at a local market where we picked up some produce and snacks. Paw picked out a bag of roasted silkworms to munch on. Fai also dug right in and went to town on them. Apparently I will try anything these days so when he offered me one I took it and popped it in my mouth with only a moment's hesitation. The outside shell had a nice fire flavoring but the inside? not so much. I politely declined to eat any more. And those are the main highlights of my trip. It was amazing to see them again and be reminded of their incredible hospitality and overall awesomeness. I promised them I would see them again before I left, in a little over a month (ah! the end is near!).

And in Bangkok news, the city turned ugly again last night. 5 grenades went off in the heart of the business district where both red shirt and recently appearing anti-red shirt protesters were gathered. One woman is confirmed to have been killed while over 80 were injured. The grenades landed in the street as well as on the raised skytrain platforms. And no one knows the real story of exactly who did it. The police are having a pretty rough time keeping the protesters in check, although many would claim the reason for that is that many of the police are secretly sympathizing with and aiding the red-shirts. It's crazy that this kind of stuff is allowed to just go on in the middle of the city. Millions of people are going about their daily business as they pass barricades of bamboo spears and troops holding live ammunition in the streets. But on the other hand, several different groups are getting fed up. There have been 'multi-colored' rallies, organization of local business owners, and meetings of the 'yellow shirts'-- all opposed to the red shirts camping out in Bangkok. But all that may only be creating more tension and more possible conflict. And the influence of all this is pretty widespread throughout the city (and country). I just found out that my two upcoming field trips--ones that were earlier postponed due to the conflict-- have been cancelled because transportation and safety is so unpredictable nowadays. But I promise, I do live and learn far from all the action so no need to worry about that.

Hope things wherever you are are peaceful and cool. And I will be seeing you soon!

Yes, I am alive

Much apologies for my extended absence-- blame it on a) laziness and b) a bout of Mono. Yes that's right, I was essentially out of commission for almost the entire month of March, so you haven't missed too much. Thankfully, I am feeling much better and have gotten my energy back which means I've been out and about again.

Actually, since my last entry on my trip to Khao Sok in Southern Thailand, I have already been back twice (once right before I got sick and once just this past week). It may sound crazy, going back to the same place every month when there are so many things to do and see in this country/ area of the world. But honestly, after being gone for 7 months, I am getting a bit tired of always being in unfamiliar situations, of not knowing what to do or when I'm getting ripped off, of being lost or clueless, etc. So instead, I really enjoy being able to tell the taxi drivers who are trying to rip me off that I don't want a ride because I know how to take the local bus for a heck of a lot cheaper, and knowing to walk over to Art's if we want to watch the monkey's, and knowing to go to Thai Herb for a delicious meal, etc. And most importantly, I know some really awesome people down there. And I've really enjoyed spending my travel time developing relationships with these Thai people as opposed to taking photographs of yet another waterfall or yet another temple, ya know? So I'll fill you in on some highlights of those two trips.

One evening was spent with our friend Ja and members of his extended family at the bungalows that his sister and her husband own. Ja brought us there to prepare a bar-b-que dinner for us. So what did we have? Pig's head. Luckily, the pig harvest from last semester prepared me for the plate of cartilage and fat and facial features that we were presented with. All things considered, it was pretty good. The meal also included a delicious yet spicy green curry and a soup with fish that Ja had speared earlier that day.

The majority of our nights down there are spent outside around a table at the bar where Ja works. We waste away the night Ja, Baw, Beer, Lek, Lek's Canadian husband, and whoever else chooses to stop by--playing cards, playing guitar, telling stories, and what not. It's always a ridiculous, chill, fun, relaxing time.

We spent two nights at one of the National Park's floating bungalows on the giant lake. This site was a little deeper into the jungle than the last we were at so we got to see a lot more wildlife. We saw: wild pig, a whole pack of bull/buffalo things, a couple of truly impressive hornbills, longtail macaque monkeys, langas, an owl, a deer, and a mouse deer, all from the safety of a longtail boat. While walking though, we came across a set of wild elephants tracks. There were just deep circles embedded in the dirt close to 2 feet in diameter--that is a giant animal! We were actually lucky not to see it though, as they can be quite dangerous.

We had quite the memorable Easter breakfast during our stay on the lake. We walked a little ways up a river into the jungle to a nice spot with downed logs to sit on. While us girls took in the scenery, Ja and Do cooked us a meal using only bamboo. They made a fire which burnt dried bamboo. They boiled water inside a tube of bamboo which they then poured into bamboo cups using a bamboo laddle, in order to serve us our choice of hot chocolate, tea, or coffee. Then, they cooked scrambled eggs inside a section of bamboo while they toasted bread by spearing the pieces with thin strips of bamboo and propping them up next to the fire. Keep in mind, all of these utensils and instruments were fashioned on the spot. Pretty impressive and pretty delicious.

One night while we were out on the lake, looking for wildlife, we stopped the boat for a while to wait for the sun to set. So the guys Ja and Do started fishing-- as they do anytime the boat is stopped. Ja caught a small fish which he immediately chopped up in order to use for bait in the hopes of catching something bigger. Well, he did. After some struggling, he pulled a 2 foot long snake head fish into the boat. It got a bit hectic on board that small boat with a massive flopping fish plus 5 people-- 3 of which being girls unprepared to deal with a massive flopping fish. But no worries, they eventually managed to stow it between the thin bamboo slats of flooring and the hull of the boat. It was late by the time we got back that night, so we ate the fish the next night instead. They bar-b-qued it over a fire and it was honestly delicious.

Our trips down there also included a visit to an impressive cave full of stalactites and stalagmites that resembled a coral reef, trips to local temples where we fed the fish and monkeys that live there, plenty of swimming in the lake and in the river, and plenty of reading, napping, and ice cream eating. So even though I go back to the same place, there is always something new and exciting to do and always plenty of relaxing to be done.

Since my last post I also took an overnight trip to a National Park outside of Bangkok. We spent the night in a tent and walked on concrete pathways to a couple of waterfalls. But the highlight of the trip was actually outside of the park. Someone had read about a bat cave where every night you can watch the bats fly out to feed. Well, it turned out to be quite the adventure to get ourselves there, involving some hitchhiking, some awkward encounters with the locals, some negotiating for a guide, and a lot of confusion. But, we made it, after a walk up a crazy steep rocky slope. We arrived at the entrance to the cave about an hour before sunset. We poked our heads inside but there wasn't much to see except darkness and the stench of bat shit was literally unbearable. So we simply camped out outside the cave and waited. Eventually, the humming and chirping of the bats grew louder and louder. One brave bat circled around the entrance to the cave several times before flying sporadically out and down over the tops of the trees. Then another decided to show its face. Then a few more started making the rounds near the entrance before disappearing into the darkening sky. AND THEN, they came. Bat after bat after bat came erupting out of the mouth of the cave. Not that you could even identify a single bat's body. Instead, it was just a mass of dark bodies and flapping wings. They formed a river, starting at the cave and flowing out, around the corner, down the cliff, through the tree tops. Each bat followed the same path, packed together like a school of fish. Honestly, it was just like that scene from The Green Mile when John Cawfey tilts his head up, opens his mouth, and releases a continuing stream of flies. It was absolutely unreal, especially considering that it went ON and ON and ON. Actually, we left before they had stopped because it was getting too dark which meant our walk back would be dangerous. We literally sat and watched for over ten minutes and they were STILL coming. I cannot even fathom how many bats fly in and out of that cave every day.

Those are some of the more exciting things I've done recently. Tonight I am leaving to go to Chiang Mai for about 5 days. Next week is Songkran, the Thai New Year, so we have no school at all. Since this holiday comes at the hottest time of the year (I don't even want to talk about how hot it is here) Thais celebrate by taking to the streets and pouring or shooting water at anyone and everyone. And supposedly nobody celebrates better than the people of Chiang Mai. So I'm headed up there and will stay with my host family from last semester. I am so excited to see them again and to be able to celebrate like the Thais do. I'll let you know how it goes.

So I don't have much more time to write because I need to pack and get ready to go. But I should write something about the current situation in Bangkok. It's gotten bad. Last night, there were the first causalities due to the political unrest. 19 people died last night and some 700 were injured. Feel free to check out the Bangkok Post, The Nation, or the BBC if you want to know more about what's going on. But the jist of it is that the 'red shirts' have been camped out in the city protesting for about a month now, demanding that the government dissolve parliament and call for new elections. They are in support of Thaksin, an ex-prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who is one of the most corrupt people in politics. Things got violent last night as the government attempted-- and failed-- to clear out their rally sites. A lot of the injuries were due to the use of tear gas and rubber bullets but there were also live rounds fired and bombs, grenades, and molotov cocktails. Things are pretty quiet this morning but obviously tensions are still ridiculously high. And people are especially nervous for next week during the holiday. The governor of Bangkok has cancelled all official Songkran celebrations, unfortunately. The sky train also closed down completely yesterday and the giant shopping malls at the heart of Bangkok's shopping district are still completely closed, along with many roads. It is ridiculous how much money the city, and country, is losing due to the lack of tourism and shopping income. It's all pretty sad-- that it has come to this. Hopefully they can resolve it soon although I'm not holding my breath. Don't worry about me, though, I live in a pretty remote part of the city where it's easy to stay out of the way. Plus, I'm leaving town--granted I can actually get out. I'll update you more on the situation in a week when I get back.

I miss everyone, but am starting to realize that the end is near. I will see you all soon! Hope everything is well. Go cubbies!