Happy 2551!

my third new year celebration was by far the most unique experience one will ever have on new year...

"Songkran," or, Thai new year was craaaaaaazyyy!!!!! on april 10, i got back from hong kong at about 11pm. and on april 11 at 6pm, about 20 of us were on a bus headed for chiang mai. needless to say, the other passengers on the bus were not the happiest of campers when we all got off in chiang mai 10 hours later......from the minute we got on the bus we were trouble ;) first of all, we had a few thai friends come with us and they are not technically allowed on the bus because the buses only have licenses for foreigners, so we had to argue with the bus drivers for about an hour before they would move the bus even one inch. finally, after we got them to start the journey to chiang mai we busted out our party supplies...hehe....and then before i knew it, we were there. so, we arrived at 6am, went straight to our hostel, "the green tulip" and slept until noonish. i woke up to lots of screaming, went downstairs, and got smashed by a bucket of water. not just a small bucket. a very large bucket. thank you to whoever graced me with that ice cold water! ;) anyway, after the nice fresh wake-up, we played water fight for almost the rest of the day....or at least until i was freezing (even in the 100 degree weather). after songkraning for 5 hours, we had a nap and then went to the night market.

the next few days were a blur and whirlwind full of ice water. buckets. water guns. canal water. and some food (as usual...meg, i know you always tease me because half of my blog is always about food!!) the best part about song kran is that everyone is totally into it. i was definitely the "deloris downer" (not a "debbie downer" on account of my mom ;)!!! )of the trip because i didn't want canal water on me, and i didn't want ice water on me either....so i basically did not have any option of water that could be poured on me. hahha...plus, everyone thought it was super funny to pour water on me....the thai guys love to target girls, and once they got me one time, i would scream and then they thought it was hilarious and then i got about 10x more water poured on me. meanwhile, jon and andrew would walk right behind me and be dry. so, basically, everyone is TOTALLY obsessed with water fighting and they do it from morning until dusk from friday through wednesday. crazy. the whole town shuts down and they pile into tuk tuks and pick up trucks and drive along the canals and throw water at each other. the traffic gets so bad that it is like a parking lot and people just run back and forth from the vehicles to the canal to fill up their water buckets. another good thing about songkran is that everyone is so so so happy! all the thai people are happy because it is new year, we were all happy because we felt like we were 5 years old again, and even when people get soaking wet in nice clothes, they smile and say "sawasdee bi mai" (or something of the sort), meaning "happy new year!" OH, and, they are so polite too! whenever someone is eating or says they do not want water on them, they do not throw water on that person! this kind of festival would never happen in america....so we enjoyed it while it lasted here! it is truly amazing, and so hard to describe...and i truly loved it for a little while, but, by the third day of songkran, i was over it. ;) everyone else thought it was the BEST thing EVER, but i hung out at our hostel and read magazines, books, and did crosswords. i was a big loser. but that's ok! i managed to stay dry for almost 24 hours! i definitely caught up on my sleep and did a lot of shopping in chiang mai.

I ALMOST FORGOT my favorite part of the trip!!!!! COOKING CLASS!!!!! on tuesday, jon, andrew and i went to a thai cooking class and learned to cook all my favorite foods!!!! but, we first went to a market in the morning to look at all of the fresh fruits and veggies, etc. and when we were standing there learning about chili paste and the stuff that goes into it, i felt something brush over both of my feet. then, from behind me, i hear andrew say "holy shit. that was a rat." then, i flipped out because it totally went over my feet and was soooooooooo gross. sooooooooo disgusting. eeeeewwwww. i got over it when i realized i would get to eat 6 meals in the duration of the cooking class ;) we made pad thai, papaya salad, curry paste, curry, stir fry, spicy soup, and mango with sticky rice!!!!! and i ate all of it. well...everything except some of my curry and rice and stir fry. but we ate a lot. it was yummmmyyyy!!! btw. thai curry paste is super tedious and hard to make....we had to pound it for so long, and jon's hand burned from the chili's for about two days afterwards....i will never take my curry for granted again ;)

then, on wednesday, we were forced to catch a bus back home because all the trains and planes were full.....back to bangkok. this time i stayed in the city for about 12 hours....and then off to krabi for some hard core adventuring!!!! (see next blog ;) )