Songkran Festivities

Ready for War

It's fair to say that we manage to make the most of the 3-day national waterfight. Starting off in the popular Khao San Road area, we arm ourselves with ice-filled supersoakers and join the tens of thousands of locals and tourists 'blessing' each other with the gifts of water and flour. In the evening, having dried off, we head to a local music restaurant for some Thai food and Thai pop, unsure of the etiquette. But sure enough, by 10pm, all 200 customers have lost interest in either the band or the food, and we spend the night emptying buckets of water over each other. Hilarious.

Swamp Boxing

But the highpoint comes when we all visit Muang Boran, a Thai cultural park which throws a Songkran festival each year. Being the only white faces, we're suddenly centre of attention as we wander past the swamp boxing arena. The compere grabs me for an interview and the crowd are amused by my adopted Thai name. Before we know it, Jules and I are locked in mortal combat balanced on a pole 10 foot above the swamp, being cheered on by a few hundred spectators. The aim is to box your opponent into the swamp, but being untrained in Thai martial arts we put on a somewhat unspectacular display of flailing limbs before simultaneously falling off, much to the crowd's amusement.

A surprise visitor

Out of the blue, Julius rocks up in Thailand for a week's holiday week's work for Nortel. Leaving the in-laws to continue their island getaway, I jump on a boat, and manage to catch Jules at Bangkok airport, where he's just got in from a meeting in China

The Outlaws Arrive

Classy Arrival

As Brian leaves, Phil and Steph rock up from Canada for a 2½ week stay. We haven't seen them in over 3 years, and it's great to catch up. Since this is the hottest time of year, first port of call is the beach. Off to Koh Samed we go.

Big Brother

Brian in Action

Brian visits for a week en route to Australia. We opt to escape the heat of Bangkok and fly up to the Golden Triangle to buzz around on motorbikes. Emboldened by his new GPS-capable phone, Brian insists we leave the road network behind and head off into the jungle. Unfortunately, the Nokia software doesn't actually indicate national borders, and we get a bit nervous when we stumble across a camp that is clearly not flying the Thai flag. Back on the established road, we see that the border is occasionally marked with small plaques, but other than that, there's no real impediment to crossing this famously porous border.
Undeterred by our brush with the Burmese, Brian then gets waylaid by some North Korean escapees who have floated down the Mekong and pitched up in Thailand. The locals refuse to help, fearing arrest, so somehow we get involved in smuggling 2 of them on the back of our bikes through to Chiang Rai. Makes the police checkpoints even more nerve-racking than usual.