happy songkran

The new year has arrived. Again! Nothing beats living in a town where you get full-on new year celebrations not once, not twice, but THRICE a year. And Phet gets days off at the end of Ramadan, so although there's no official Bangkok party for the Islamic new year, we do celebrate that indirectly also. This week we are on holiday for Thai New Year, also known as Songkran.

Ji and I get two and a half weeks off for Songkran. Phet and all his colleagues - including the Thai ones - got a single day. Suckers. Teaching don't pay but it sure do offer fine vacation enticements. The holiday got off to a somewhat anticlimactic start when our school sports day was cancelled due to rain. This was pretty funny since we haven't actually had any rain since November, and then on the week that sports day was scheduled, we had two torrential downpours. It was especially unfortunate because the day had started out with sunshine and blue skies and literally 8 minutes before we were going to start the clouds let loose buckets of rain. And - awww - the kids all looked so cute dressed up in their team colours with bandanas to match. Here are Ji and Phet chilling out in the getting-ready room just before sports day was called off:

Yeah, go Team Tuna Sandwich!

Despite the setback, the kids had a good time because while the sports competitions were cancelled, we still had a huge buffet lunch and wet and wild water fighting Songkran fun. For anyone unfamiliar with Thai and Lao new year, the basic deal for the holiday is as follows: everyone goes back to their hometowns where they drink like crazy, dance in the streets, and have massive town-wide water fights. All the temples are filled with visitors who come to pray and gently douse the buddha images with flower-scented water and who then hang out around the outside of the temple and douse each other with the help of massive AK 47 water guns. The best part about all of this is that new year always falls at the tail end of the dry season when temperatures range from a brisk 32' C to a high of 36'. Here's one of the Kindergarden kids with his warhead. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of Ji sitting in the middle of the fill-your-gun pool wearing his shirt, shorts, socks, and sneakers while pouring endless buckets of water on the little girls' heads because I don't have the scuba attachment for my camera yet.

Since "sports" day, Ji and I have been chilling out, maxing, and relaxing. Our friend Kit from KL was in town so we hung out alot with her. Last weekend Ji went to what he called a "non-functional pool party" at Phet's boss' house. Apparently Ji and Phet were the only ones who went swimming, a fact which did not particularly impress Ji. One of the guests told Ji that she would shrink like the Wicked Witch if she got wet and Ji believed her adamantly. I asked him if the guest was stinky, and when he said no she smelled nice and clean, I asked him how she stayed that way if she couldn't shower. "She goes in places that smell nice," Ji answered. Ah, if only it was so easy!

On Monday we had invited Kit to come over around lunchtime, but at 11:30 while Ji was having a snack, we suddenly heard a strange dripping noise coming from our ceiling. Three minutes later, a thin steam of water started coming out of our hallway light fixture. I called the inept landlord who said he'd send someone up. Another five minutes later and there was a twice-shower force of water pouring from the large light fixture in our dining room. Oh goody. I called the landlord again. Got a big bucket. Ran upstairs to see if I could see anything amiss, but no. The fix-it man finally got to our apartment when the massive bucket (at least 3' in diametre) was half full and the floor was flooding with water and I was mopping like a madwoman. Eventually he got the water and electricity turned off and we wisely went to meet Kit well away from our wet house while he sopped things up, repaired the electrical system, and replaced the two foot square sheet of ceiling that he had sawn off.

The whole flood thing was good inspiration for spring cleaning, so I spent the rest of the week puttering around the house. We washed the floors, the windows, the screens, the bathrooms, the shower curtains, the clothes, we re-arranged Ji's art supplies and his toy shelves, and we got rid of our bag-family stack of old newspapers.

For excitement, Ji and I went to the park and got sweaty, and we discovered a good used bookstore. In the evening he played like crazy with his father and did stuff like set off the rocket brought by famous Auntie Anne (see rocket pictured above). Thursday was the official first day of Songkran and we went on our usual family outing to go see a movie. Ice Age 2 was playing at the super suave theatre, so we enjoyed the La-Z-Boy recliners, soft blankies, and cushions while we watched the show. Sweet! On the taxi ride home we had fun checking out the roadside water fighting stations that the folks who were still in Bangkok and hadn't gone home to the provinces had set up. On each block there were at least three water stations, complete with giant barrels of water, and at least 20 kids and various damp adults hanging out spraying passersby and driversby. The water fighting was far more restrained than in Vientiane. There must be municipal by-laws governing the water throwing, because people were very nice and calm and used only water guns, hoses, and buckets. What else would they use, I hear you asking. Well, in Vientiane and in Pakse people used to throw teeny little water-filled plastic bags that really sting when they hit, especially if they happen to get you in the eye, they'd also throw food-colouring mixed with tapioca blobs, flour bombs, ice, and frozen fish sticks. No, ok, they didn't throw frozen fish, but only because they wanted to eat it and not because it would've been dangerous.

Bangkokians, in comparison, are a tame bunch. There were loads of people water fighting from the backs of the pick-up trucks, but again using only buckets of water and water guns. Today I walked home from the restaurant where we had breakfast and I got sprayed by six different road-side gangs, all of which were extremely kind. They got me a bit wet but avoided soaking my purse and waited until I had given them the obvious look-in-the-eye-you-see-I-won't-be-mad-if-you-spray-me face. Old ladies, vendors, and people who were clearly on their way to do business of some sort were left unsprayed. Ji is desperate to join in the fun and I'm planning to take him to our local temple - where they've set up a fair, complete with merry-go-round - this evening so he can soaked. Poor little guy. With no cousins around, he's been forced to resort to extreme measures to celebrate Songkran on his own.

All alone in the bathtub. Doesn't your heart just ache for him?

Lastly, in political news here in Thailand, PM Thaksin has agreed to step down although his party won the majority of votes. Seems like he probably finally agreed to back down after his Thai Rak Thai colleagues encouraged him to do so after the election. It remains to be seen whether he will make a comeback in future years or whether he'll go off gently into that good night enjoyed by multi-billionaires world wide. In the meantime, we've got a senate to elect. The Bangkok Post's headline yesterday, while informative, was found to be insulting by classic comedy lovers throughout the country:

[Bangkok-15-April-2006]