How to get wet safely during Songkran

It is the year 2556! Hurray!

Thais celebrate the new year in style: getting soaked head to foot and plastering gooey flesh-colored paste on people's faces.

No one is exempted. Everyone gets wet and gets flesh-colored warpaint on their faces. Whether you are on foot, in a van, in a tuktuk, or just going to 7-Eleven to buy ice.



You look like you need a cold shower!

Your camera won't save you!

It is extremely crowded so be very mindful of your possessions - even the ones attached to your body (harhar). The crowds are massive. Think of it as EDSA Dos...but with water. Lots of it. Mostly icy.

The crowd on Thanon Silom corner Thanon Naradiwas - this is the thinnest part, trust me!



So if you do decide to join the craziness, come prepared. We did!

Don't mess with the Pinoy Songkran Warriors!

I skipped today's craziness and went to Nichada Thani for another face-stuffing of Pinoy food.
There's still tomorrow - the last and most bonggaceous day of Songkran.

Sawasdee Pi Mai Kha!

 All pictures courtesy of Larry Castro

Khai Thoon, my four-legged Thai friend

Today I made a new friend.

This is Khai Thoon. He is a 2-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback owned by a Caucasian couple two houses down from my dad's boss' place in Nichada Thani.

He is lovely, rambunctious... and left outside when his people are not home. Just like today.

It made me very sad and a bit angry at his owners, frankly, but he is so cute and friendly that I could not help but warm up to him.

He is, after all, the first Ridger I've seen in person (in dog?)

Just look at him!

I think he's a mix, though - his ears are too small and his coat a bit too lush but what the heck. He was affectionate... and hungry! I think it's no accident his name translates to "tender chicken"... or at least that's what it sounds like.

Good thing a group of 20+ Pinoys and Thais were having a feast in the same courtyard he was frolicking in. He was well fed today.

Now... if I could only have a word with his owners...

What Remains In The Past

Like 99.9% of the population on Earth, I have a past. Of course that past is filled with people who, at one point or another, shared my mundane existence with me.

Lately, I noticed that more than a few of them have reappeared. Most of them, I am more than glad to reconnect with.

They're from all corners of the globe (does a sphere have corners?) but at some point in time, our lives intersected. Now, further down the time-space continuum (in a galaxy far, far away), we've done it again.

By not keeping in touch for the past decade or so, we've missed out on that time's worth of friendship - so many potential memories. So there's nothing better to do than catch up with each other's lives, yes?

Life's too short.