Embracing Songkran

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Trip Start Jan 16, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 30, 2008 Next
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  Nong Khai, Thailand
Sunday, April 13, 2008

Hiiiii,
Arriving at our new guest house about7.15am we were in a bit of a muddle as first we had to wait for reception to open at 8 (before we'd know if there was a room available) and then til 11 for the other people to check out and for the room to be cleaned. We were very sleepy.
After settling in, we went to buy some waterguns and buy the time we got to the shop (about 1minutes walk) we were soaking already. Most Thais drive their pick-ups around with big tubs of water and lots of people in the back throwing water at anything that moves. They are also armed with water guns and talcum powder. We bought the puniest water guns ever (all they had) and headed back to our guest house lane, exchanging water with people stood along the pavement on our way. The sprinkling of water is considered a blessing and offers good luck for the new year, we're not sure why they love to put talcum powder on your face

25metre-high sculpture

. At the top of the lane we found a young boy with a water gun (yes, better than ours) and two larrrrrrrge pots of water. We ganged up on him for a bit and then as pick-ups started going by frequently we teamed up with him. We were shortly joined by the hotel staff and some guests as we all soaked each other and passers by. It was brilliant. Unfortunately no photos as the camera was locked in our room and our key was locked in reception, whoops. By the end we had really wrinkly feet and hands. Got cleaned up, had tea in our guest house and wandered down to the Mekong River to see a jazz band on a floating bar. Unfortunately in threw it down and we ended up being the only people there apart from the bar lady. It was rather atmospheric though and we both enjoyed the hanging chair.
The next morning we went to Sala Keoku Sculpture Park and wandered around admiring them for an hour. Built over a period of 20years by Boun Leua Sourirat, a Laotian artist.The story goes, Leua stayed with Keoku, a kindly hermit who taught him about Buddha and the underworld, for several years. The sculpture park was a tribute to his spiritual teacher, the artist created a vast array of gigantic sculptures which depict many of the religious and mythical beings he learned about from Keoku. It was rather odd but that kind of thing is right up our alley, especially the group of sculptures that made up the Wheel of Life. Here we entered through the jaws of life and walked in a circle around the centre, zero. Around the edge of the circle were sculptures that depicted the pattern of influences in life.
We decided to go to Hat Jommani for lunch, a sandy beach under the Friendship Bridge which spans the Mekong River over to Laos. The beach only makes an appearance during the dry season. What we didn't quite realise was how busy the road there would be as traffic consisted of hundreds of pick-ups full of people and water

A funny guy who talcum-powdered us

. We crawled for about an hour in our puny tuk tuk, as you can imagine we were easy prey. We got absolutely drenched and countless people talcum powdered us, it was brilliant fun and we spent the whole time laughing.
Finally arriving at the beach, it was an astonishing sight. Absolutely packed with people, the majority of whom were swimming fully clothes in the Mekong with giant rubber rings. We went to one of the restaurants (mats on the sand, low tables and some covering overhead) and got very muddled. Luckily a nice Thai lady with good English rescued us, she got a table cleared for us and translated our order. We were the only foreign people on the beach and we ended up with enough food for 5people but the challenge of it all was exciting.
After lunch we wandered back up to the main road to discover it blocked off and no tuk tuk drivers who wanted to take us the whole way round. We resorted to walking back for an hour, again being drenched and talcum-powdered by pick-ups and people on the street. Fun but we were absolutely knacked by the end of it.
Today we got an hour bus to Udon Thani to visit the Udorn Sunshine Nursery, home to dancing flowers (no really, they dance). We got a tuk tuk there from the bus station to find it closed for the holidays. We waved our tuk tuk driver back, went back t the bus station and got on a bus back to Nong Khai. We were hardly phased, used to stuff like that after India I guess.
Had a pleasant lunch and now we're here, we are itching like mad as there are lots of mozzies around our garden guest house! And midges. Arrgh.
Going to walk back along the promenade and tuck into our books in the garden (or in our room under our mozzy net). xxxxxx

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A huuuge pipe being used to soak people	A pick-up going by	A pick-up going by after drenching us	A soaked, talcum-powdered Becky
A weird sculpture with weird fingers	Becky having lunch on Hat Jommani Beach	Becky with sculptures	Crossing the Mekong into Laos on a bus
Drum at Wat	Luke being poured on	Luke being powdered with prickly heat	Luke in the tuk tuk
Luke stood in the jaws of life	Luke with sculptures	Luke with the big gold Buddha on top of the Wat	On the bus back from Udonthani
People playing in the Mekong	People playing in the Mekong on Songkran	Pick-ups mid-fight	The Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River
The queue of pick-ups along the road to the beach	The view of Hat Jommani from above on Songkran

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