SONGKRAN!!!!!

Songkran was almost two weeks ago and I'm still talking about it.  I like to ask the Songthaew drivers, "Khun chaawp Songkran, may kha?" ( Do you like Songkran!?)  Usually they say yes.
  Before the  Songkran festival, one of the drivers told me he didn't like it because he didn't get to "play Songkran," because he has to drive people around all over the city.
Weather you get to play or not, you will probably get wet.

I haven't even said what Songkran is.  This is Songkran in Chiang Mai:

A huge city-wide (but also country wide) water fight. 

You really can't go anywhere without getting SOAKED.  FOR THREE DAYS!  Buckets of water splashed on people walking by, or thrown on people driving by (can be kind of dangerous).  It's impossible not to have fun, unless you are allergic to water, or... are a person who doesn't like fun. 

Why does this happen?

Thai New Year!  It originated from an Indian festival and the water throwing represents cleansing and renewal for the new year.  It didn't used to be this crazy.  A little sprinkle of water on the shoulder used to be typical, but with the heat most everyone welcomes getting drenched now a days.  Maybe not the elders, but the young people sure have a good time.  People also go to the temples and cleanse the Buddha shrines.  Thais carry handfuls of sand to their neighborhood monastery in order to recompense the dirt that they have carried away on their feet during the rest of the year. The sand is then sculpted into stupa-shaped piles and decorated with colorful flags.  

Scott and I and my friends had so much fun.  We went to a "foam party" the first night back from the beach.  I know I know... I would never go to a foam party in College Park - ew disgusting, nasty stuff.

But here it was different.  No guys and girls were even really dancing with each other, everyone was having a good time playing in the foam and being cool.

If Songkran were in the states, it would be awful. People would take it way to far.  There would be people getting way to drunk and passing out.  It's perfect here.  When people spray you with water, you just smile and laugh at each other.

The first day Scott and I went to the Tha Pae gate area, where the main action was and just walked around spraying everyone, and getting sprayed (or buckets poured).  Sometimes you get the water from the moat (nasty and warm)  other times you get ice cold water!  SURPRISE!  I definitely couldn't take any pictures here because my camera isn't waterproof.  The airline even gave us waterproof bags as a gift on our flight back into Chiang Mai. 

Chiang Mai has the biggest and best celebration, probably because the city has a freaking moat!

All the days were so fun.  We never had a plan because it always took forever to go anywhere, and whenever you tried, you just ended up stopping somewhere and playing Songkran for a while.

We took up a post outside of some bars with some people and just sprayed all passer-byes, laughing the whole time. 

What a hilarious first impression of a city for Scott!! HAHA

Here are some of the only pics I took, and video that a girl in my program made.

http://vimeo.com/64151232  - I'm not in it because I wasn't there that day... 

I'll miss Sonkran.  I want to come back for it again sometime in my life.

Scott and Sarah go to the beach!

After work on Thursday April 4th, Scotty Bass headed to the Dulles Airport to catch a 10pm EST flight around the world!  About 12 hours later, on Friday evening I hopped on a 10-hour overnight bus going South from Chiang Mai.   Early Saturday morning after three months apart, we were finally reunited at the Bangkok airport!

<3 Love!

Scott's first time out of the country! In front of our hostel in Bangkok.

Waiting for the Sky train.  Scott brought the biggest bag ever.  N00B.

For our first day in Bangkok we.... slept all day.  Fine by me! We were both exhausted.  We went to a sweet rooftop bar and out to dinner, but I think Scott was asleep the whole time.  Next day we flew to Krabi!  Who likes Bangkok anyway?

Our first plane ride together!

So cute.

Took us almost all day to get to the beach because we bussed down to Trang, another province South of Krabi.  This place has less tourists, but is just as beautiful.  

We thought that people were trying to rip us off by taking us to what seemed like a friend's bus company.  I just wanted to go to the regular bus station.  Turns out they were probably helping us out because we ended up at the bus station with no English anywhere.  Good thing I could speak a little Thai and then a really nice man helped us out.  We went to a different bus station, waited a while, walked around some markets and rode on another mini bus from the center of Trang to the beach.  It was a little hectic but fun for Scott (and me) to see more of real Thailand, and not the touristy stuff.  We were the only white people for a good while.  Compared to Phuket where everyone is white besides the employees, this is refreshing.  The beach that we got to that evening was all Thai people.  The room we stayed in was pretty simple.  The beach wasn't clear blue water and white sand, but it was still beautiful.

Hazy, but pretty pretty nice. 

White boy

Me being pathetic

Pak Meng.  Cute little town.

Next day we caught the ferry to an island called Koh Ngai / Koh Hai.

We thought the first beach was kinda nice.  HA!! Ha ha.  Yeah right.  Then we came to our little island.  Not anything on this island except for a few beach bungalow resorts.  We paid $30 (/ 2) a night to stay HERE: 

Ferry to Koh Ngai

Our bungalow

View from our front porch

We didn't really lay around on the beach too much even though we could have.  We ate a lot of really good food, as the name of our place was ' Koh Ngai Seafood'   We chartered a longtail boat with a few other girls to take us out to explore the other islands.  We snorkeled around the island in the picture and it was the best snorkeling I've ever done!  (Haven't really been snorkeling much)  I really thought it was just as fun as some of the diving I've done.  While we were snorkeling a guy on our boat was fishing underwater with a spear. 

We also went to Emerald Cave!  Lot's of tours take their groups here so there were a bunch people all holding on to ropes with lights and life jackets swimming through this cave to get to a 'hong' or room in the middle of the island.  I didn't have a life jacket and our 'guide/boat driver' only used a lighter while we swam through the pitch black tunnel.  Once inside we felt like we were in Jurassic Park.  Here's a picture from the internet, plus some more of Scott's.  

Meew

 

Bananas in coconut milk + Bananagrams!  We played so much bananagrams, brought it everywhere.  Scott used to beat me, but now I beat him all the time and playing with two letter words is too easy.


After Koh Ngai we headed north to Koh Lanta.  We stayed at the best little bungalow compound in the jungle owned by a Muslim man named Hutyee Boat.  I MISS HIM.  He got the name Hutyee added to Boat when he went to Mecca apparently.


When you talk to him on the phone he yells.  "saRAH from ameriCA!"  Or when you walk by him, he'll say the same thing.  Or when we're in our bungalow, he'll yell the same thing from outside.
"You want motorbike?  Yes. HAVE HAVE HAVE."

There is actually a separatist movement in the South with the Muslims, and some unrest/violence.  Thailand is 95% Buddhist, and the 4% of people that are Muslim live in the South.  There's not violence where we were at the beach.  It was interesting to see a different culture compared to the North.  Hutyee Boat said he didn't like Songkran.  (After all, it is a Buddhist holiday - stay tuned for the post!)

His wife made us dinner both nights.  Reallly good fish and curry.  I never ate a fish whole, just ripping it apart with my hands.  They really didn't speak much English, but it was enough.  It's times like this when I wish I was better at Thai.  I asked him what his cat's name was in Thai and he said it didn't have a name, it's name was "Mɛɛw" .. means "cat" in Thai.  Scott and I thought this was hilarious. 

Also there were some people being a little loud sitting on the porch of their bungalow and I ended up chatting with them and seeing their place.  They told me they had been living there for 3 years.  WTF.  I didn't believe them, but then when I talked to them a little bit and saw their very lived in kitchen and bungalow I realized they weren't joking.  Hippies. They told me about when Lonley Planet discovered this place and how it has changed since then.  Not too much fortunately.   Who lives in a bungalow like this for 3 years?! Haha.

Our Bungalow

One day and rained and Scott and I laid around.  The other day we rented a bike and drove around.  Ran out of gas once... found some gas.  Kayaked to a small uninhabited island and hung out on a little beach.  Good times.










After Koh Lanta we made our way in a minivan back up to Krabi to catch our flight. We didn't have time to go to a beach in Krabi, but had fun in the town at the markets.  We took a longtail boat to a cave and saw some monkeys too!

Laying on the bow of the boat.  Weeee!

 

Knee problems

A few days after my parents left I went to a yoga class and hurt my knee pretty badly.  It was so stupid. I was in an almost-split position, obviously doing something wrong, and all of the sudden I felt like I couldn't move out of the position without my knee seriously hurting.  I rolled out of it, waited till the end of the class, and then couldn't walk.  My friend Anna drove me to the hospital on her motorbike...

Sigh..  I'm pretty sure I hurt it initially rock climbing in Chiang Mai and this made it worse doing this.

After many days back and forth to the hospital and lots of waiting  (+ a lot of free rides from Thai strangers!)  I get MRI results that I tore my meniscus.  Requires surgery. (3rd one)  Looks like this summer will be the same as last summer.

A week or so after I tore it, we went to a Lisu Village for a day trip with my class.  We went on a day that was one of a 3-day ceremony for the worshiping of their ancestors and elders.  We drove down to a site where the graves were, and it was almost like a festival atmosphere.  The Lisu people were very generous, and gave us lots of homemade whiskey, beer, and food!  (Probably too much).  In Thailand drinking is pretty much a regular thing on our school field trips, as is and hanging out/drinking with professors.  (Not just my program  - in general for Thai students too).

There was a Shaman there and I asked him if he could heal my knee.  He said not really because we didn't have anything (like a chicken) to sacrifice, but he said he could try.  He rubbed my knee for a while, blew on it a little bit, and then told my professor that it should be better by the next day!

Didn't happen.

All in all, it's okay though!  I'm in Thailand and can still do a lot of cool things!  I recently read a book that Natalie recommended (thanks girl) about a woman who got in a horrible accident on a bus in Laos.  She was right at the point where the other bus collided into hers and it was a miracle she didn't die.  Her organs were smashed up into her shoulder, and she broke most of her bones.  She was in such a remote place and had to ride back many hours in the back of a truck in horrible roads to get any care, and then it wasn't until a few days that she actually got quality care.  It was kind of terrifying reading this book as I was speeding down the road on an overnight bus to Bangkok.  The other cars driving on the road seemed like they were parked because we were going so fast.

So I'm thankful that I'm not hurt that badly.   And my family can be thankful that I'm not going to Laos.  (Met some one else recently who knew someone who died on a bus there.)

Speaking of motor accidents... this is why I never got a motorbike.  Most of the people in my program have them, but most of them have been in accidents.  It sucks to walk everywhere, especially when walking hurts, but I didn't need to risk it.  Even though driving one makes you feel so freeee!!!  I guess I'm growing up a little bit...?  After 2 knee surgeries and coming up on a third, I know that I'm not invincible.

Overnight bus to Bangkok...  spoiler alert - TO SEE SCOTT!!!