How To Stay Warm In Delhi

Delhi India, January 6,2007

This is a story from my recent Journey in India
It's great to have a place to stay here in the Tibetan Settlement. Lonely Planet says wongdhen house is one of the best for the price; 450 rupees ($13 CAD) per night. The only problem is that the temperature here in Delhi is around freezing at night and there are no heaters in this hotel. I'm from Canada so I figure that doesn't matter cause I'm used to the cold right? The difference is that where I'm from, it's only cold outside. If you're cold in my country, you just go inside and warm up. Here in Delhi if you're cold, you just try not to think about it. You don't really appreciate heat until you try living without it. We realize we have to just suck it up and deal with the situation, so Joan Marie, our Buddhist Nun friend, gives us a pomegranate as a welcome gift and we settle into our room. This guesthouse was probably built around 1900 and the plumbing is pretty basic but at least the water in the shower is hot. We have TV. We have a remote control, and we do have a few warm clothes. If it wasn't for the little sleeping bag I got at the last minute before leaving Canada (thanks mom) we would be having a much rougher night tonight. So we put on all our clothes and we huddle under the blankets. Aw sends me a conspiratorial glance and asks the question: "Stevie, how come you never check weather in Day-lee before come?"
Now let me tell you something in my defence, about the video you're about to see; I am very cold at this moment, and there is an Indian program on TV that has dance music on it with a very catchy rhythm. Think of this as an instructional video on how to stay warm in Delhi.

Sexy 'Songkran' Girls

Continued from [Bangkok 'Songkran!']

Khao San Road is nuts today with thousands of warm, energetic people celebrating the Thai Lunar New Year.

We stumble upon a great street party where lovely young dancers are selling beer (three cans for 100 baht, or a dollar a can. The party is great but when we see it is Filipino beer, we know we have to have some, in honor of Ivan. Just after we got our beer, this girl got doused with water. I love this shot because I got captured her just at the moment before she reacts to it. But no worries; she gives as good as she gets.
Right in the middle of our fun, we have a line of police vehicles pass through with lights flashing. The police are great. This officer's car is smeared all over with powder but he just quietly carries on with his job. The one chilling event was when a series of Bomb squad vehicles came through the crowd. Some parts of Thailand have experienced bomb scares and even a couple of actual bombs since the Ex-Prime Minister was thrown out. But so far it's all just fun and no problem here. If there was a bomb, there's really not much the police could do to move us. So we might as well keep partying.
We fight our way through this combat zone to get a better look at the stage with the dancers. Songkran is WILD!!!

...and sexy. The girl on the right can really dance. They're holding up signs to sell the beer while they groove to the music. Thailand's Songkran is the World's largest Wet T-shirt Party.Aw is so much fun to party with. She is so bold and has a killer smile as she smears strangers with powder and pours water over them. Ivan and I just hang on for the ride.

Aw snapped this just as the Restaurant owner snagged this Farang with the hose. Look at that evil look of glee on his face.
Songkran reminds me of Halloween. It's the one time in the year when a culture who never touches in public, suddenly is touching everyone. And it's the one time when transsexuals (called 'Lady-Boys' in Thailand) are able to flaunt their stuff on the streets. Aw swears this is a lady-boy. All I know is, everyone is welcome here and we're all having a blast. HAPPY SONGKRAN 2050!
Bangkok, Thailand, April 13, 2007

Bangkok 'Songkran!

Thailand celebrated the Lunar New Year and they call it 'Songkran'. It's a huge water festival and while it's happening, the whole city shuts down to party. This is Bangkok's Khao San Road areas. There must be fifty thousand people here.This is Aw after the first ten minutes. We all slather each other with white powder mixed with mud to form a mud for smearing on each other's face as we wish everyone 'Happy New Year'.
I"m wearing the 'Drunk' shirt that Aw gave me to get me in the mood for this crazy event.
This is what my camera sees as I hold it over the crowd on Khao San Road.

That's Ivan on the left. We met him a few days ago at Angkor Wat Cambodia. He's a television producer from the Philippines. He's supposed to be back at work right now but he just couldn't resist the show here.

Ivan started out by saying that he just wanted to stay dry and safe inside somewhere. Then the next thing we knew, he had bought a Commando sized squirt gun and has now become Rambo.
The people of Thailand are so 'Jai dee' (sweet heart). Look at the expression on her face as she douses me.
Songkran is insane; so much fun. We kept walking around and rubbing 'white powder' on the smiling faces around us. Then we came upon a street party led by a group of sexy young women on stage. [See 'Sexy Songkran Girls']
Bangkok, Thailand, April 13, 2007

Bangkok: April Fools Day

April Fools Day is a very special day to me. I asked a beautiful woman to marry me that day. But she later said no.

So I decided to book a trip to one place in Thailand that would help me to forget the disaster from this date last year...Phuket.

So now I'm booked to leave Bangkok Sunday night on the train to Phuket. (Please remember that day. It will be very important later) 'At' suggests I take the water ferry back to Kao San Road, and so for 10 baht I take a great ride back to my hotel. The ferry is a very fast boat and when it stops at the pier, run, don't walk to get on because it stops for only a few seconds before taking off again at a very good clip.

And it just so happens that there is a special Buddhist festival that night, right outside my hotel, so I attend.

A stage is set up on my street with Thai dancers and a young girl singing. When I looked closer I found that the costumes are actually very modest. The women wear what seem like white bathing suits under their costumes.

Kao san seems like a smaller version of Las Vegas. It was a festive night. I went to a bar and had a couple of drinks and some great Thai food and headed home.

The next day I went to the Weekend Market. It's called 'JJ Market' and you get there by taking the Sky Train. It is one of the biggest markets in the entire world.

They sell mostly clothing, Buddhist art and lots and lots of food. This little girl was looking at the Thai version of a pet shop (petting, not eating!!) Bangkok was sweltering hot this weekend. It was 40 degrees Celsius and I spent a lot of time running from to any place that had even a hint of air conditioning. What was I thinking! By the way, you notice I am still looking for those flip flops for you Sarah. Hey Rachael, let me know your size too! I hope you're size 6. These Thais really have small feet!

Khon Kaen Karaoke 2: Women

Kohn Kaen, Thailand, March 23, 2005
9:30pm Karaoke Bar: Sit motions me to suddenly get up and before I know it we are heading to another bar down the dirt road. Two minutes later, he stops the Pickup truck and the five of us go into a bar that has a brightly lit stage in Day glow colors and a table of several women in their 20s and 30s all dressed in tight disco outfits that look like something from the 80s. A woman who introduces herself as Nuan comes up to me and asks me: "Do you like breasts?" I shrug and say: "Chai". Nuan gives the nod to the other people with me and we all take our seats. 'Sit' orders our 4th bottle of whiskey for the night and the show begins. The first dancer comes on stage wearing a very tight, K-Mart Blue dress and starts lip sinking to a song as she dances. I keep thinking she is about to begin taking her clothes off but she never does.

Sit (pictured here) motions for me to follow him and we head to the dance floor in front of the stage and begin Thai dancing. Then the Dancer on stage starts doing different moves which I imitate. At the end of the song she yells out 'Canada' and everyone smiles and nods their heads. The flash on my camera isn't working tonight but I have a photo of a woman very similar to the dancers here. I think it's a shame when lovely Thai woman try to imitate the way Farangs dress. It's like being trapped in a time warp from the Seventies.

While five other dancers take turns on the stage, Nuan plants herself on the chair next to me and talks to me in reasonable English. She says she is a hair dresser and says she can give me a ride to Khon Kaen in the morning if I wish. I say: "Chai krup, Cup-khun-cup" because Uncle can only take me in the afternoon. I suggest she just pick me up at Sit's home in the morning but she glances over to them and says to me: "You should come to my salon in the morning if you are still interested." I think she is also trying to say that she is interested in coming to Ubon Ratchithani the next day as well, but it's so loud in the bar I just can't be sure. I'm confused by that offer and I say I will call her the next day from Sit's.

At midnight, the five of us (Nuan stays there) head back home to Sit and Nu's place where we have a late meal of leftovers from the picnic earlier that day and we polish off the 4th bottle of Whiskey. We finally head to bed at 1:30am.

Maybe it's just as well my camera flash wasn't working that night. It was so surreal; but so fun.