We arrived in Phuket early Tuesday morning and went straight to the beach. After enough city landscape in Bangkok it was nice to see the beaches of Phuket Island. The air was remarkably cleaner and the water was warmer than bath water. Each day the temperature was in the high 80’s and there was not a single day of rain. The previous week parts of Thailand experienced massive flooding, and some are still damaged by the excessive rains, which is part of the reason we needed to fly to Phuket instead of taking a train. After we got settled in Owen’s friend’s house we planned a tourist-y day. The next day we would go to the Phuket Zoo and then visit the port district which features the famous Sino-Portuguese architecture only know to that area.
The zoo was pretty hands on compared to other zoos I have been to. I mean that there seemed to be a lack of safety and little protective barrier between the animals and the people. We saw some interesting animals, but the coolest part of the zoo was the snake show. The snake handlers performed fearless tasks and would parade poisonous cobras around the audience. There was also a neat part of the performance when a guy was dodging the bites of a boa constrictor. After the zoo we went to the port district and viewed some of the architecture. The buildings had a Chinese feel, but with Western influence. The windows and doors had a feeling of old Ming and Qing construction, but the arches and balconies were distinctly Western. I took pictures of some of the buildings I liked the most. After a full day of exploring we returned home and took a nap on the beach before we would go out to dinner and then to a local bar.
Dinner was delicious as usual and was a 129 Baht (~5 dollars) all you can eat buffet of fresh Thai seafood. After eating until we were stuffed we walked to a small bar street with beachside bars and hammocks. We sat down and had some of the local Thai beers like Singha and Chang. Next to us was a Belgium guy who started a conversation. It was mostly small talk until he asked us if we knew what tomorrow was. We said, “Wednesday?” knowing it was probably the wrong answer. He said, “No, tomorrow is the start of Songkran!” I had to ask what this was and he replied, “Songkran will be the craziest time of your life. The whole country literally turns into 10 year-olds for three days. The holiday was originally a welcoming of the new year, and, according to the Thai calendar, it is year 2554. The Thai people pay their respects to elders and bring food to monks and monasteries and all that…” I interrupted, “That does not sound too exciting, man.” He replied frankly, “F***ing wait, I’m not done. Now the tradition is to just play in the water for three straight days, and I mean have water gun fights, soak people with buckets, and smear this white paint all over everyone’s faces. I don’t understand it at all, but it is the best time I have ever had in my life. This country goes crazy for three days and you will too, just wait and see.” We still were skeptical and unsure about Songkran, but we did not really care, we planned to hit Rao Wai Beach the next day and lay out. As we walked out of the bar at half past midnight a truck came flying by the street and three people in the back of the lorry soaked us with supersoakers. That was only a small taste of the battle to ensue…
The wake-up call the night before prepared us for Songkran, and we knew we needed guns of our own. We bought two supersoakers and asked a taxi driver to take us into Rao Wai where we heard things were going crazy. It was like being dropped off in the center of a full scale revolution. There was anarchy and chaos with water guns. The taxi driver made us get out quickly to avoid getting his interior getting wet and we immediately loaded our guns with water and began blasting away. There were giant black vats of water spaced every block. These were refill stations and the government actually ships these in for the people. In addition to the vats, each bar and restaurant will have giant vats of water to attract thirsty Songkran patrons. It was like I was 10 again and the fire hydrant was turned on at the end of the street. It was the largest scale water gun battle I have ever seen! Over 20,000 people were packed on this little street just spraying each other all day. The music was blasting and cars were driving by throwing buckets at those on foot…like I said it was anarchy. I had my camera for some of the time, but the water was just too much for it and it got destroyed, so I was only able to take a few pictures.
After getting a feel for the battle we started planning our own operations. We targeted smokers and those eating. When we saw a smoker we would snipe his/her cigarette and yell, “NO SMOKING!” Because of the nature of the holiday everyone just laughed and lit another one…which we would promptly put out which would result in less of a smile, but still humorous nonetheless. After a few hours of walking up and down the beach street smokers would recognize us and hide when they saw us come by. One guy actually put out his cigarette when he saw us coming to avoid getting wet!
We stayed at the beach for over 8 hours playing water guns and at the end of the day passed out back at home. It was a day of swimming, running, and shooting all in fun. It has been so hard for me to describe the craziness that was Songkran, but you can imagine two more days of such shenanigans that was what it was. This was now the third new year celebration I have been a part of this semester. First was the real new year then the Chinese New Year and then Songkran. I will have to see if any other culture is celebrating its new year before I head back to America.
The second part of the week in Phuket we planned to visit the beautiful Phi Phi Islands…
--
Jordan J. Foley
傅力波
No comments:
Post a Comment