Songkran Family [Part 3]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007
See [Songkran Family Part 1], [Songkran Family Part 2]
I'm so impressed by this family. They have fun together but they have a stronger bond that comes through at difficult times.
A'taw is being a great sport today. She joins in with gusto but her heart is elsewhere.
Her husband, Poung, is in hospital right now. He just suffered a stroke a couple of days ago. Our warmest thoughts are with you khun Poung. Fortunately they have this wonderful family to watch out for them both.
I sneaked this photo from another event but these are A'tui and Mao who have been so kind as to let me stay in their home for the last month. A'tui was with us on Khao San road yesterday She owns a chain of restaurants in Thailand. Khun Mao runs a Country Club in Bangkok. They are wise and humble people (and above average Karaoke singers). The Celebration today is at their home.

View (pronounced 'Wiew') is one of the daughters of Wat and Pooky (are you confused yet? I am). She is a great sport and is always willing to pose and smile for a photo. And I think her T-shirt sums up the attitude of this beautiful family; 'Life is what you make it. It's my honor to share this special occasion with this amazing group of people. Khopt khun krup, everyone.

Songkran Family [Part 2]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007

See [Songkran Family Part 1], [Songkran Family Part 3]

Everyone is getting drenched at our family Songkran celebration. I'm honored to be a part of it.

Nat, his girl friend; Aui . She has the most luminous eyes. Next to her is Nat's sister; Nampeth. Nat just got back from his training as a monk. Many men in Thailand take this training before starting their careers. I just love these faces. So many of the Thais have such a radiance to their faces.

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'Aui' at the moment of impact. Fortunately, the water tends to be warm (except when some people I will not mention ((((Aw))) put ice cubes in the mix.

Aw and Pooky do a lot of work behind the scenes at these family events. Pooky is the unofficial photographer for the clan.

These are the ring-leaders of the water fights; Wat and Natty. Natty has a great spirit. He's in the midst of a round of chemotherapy for a brain tumor and yet he joins in with the best of them.

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Of all the people we doused with water, Wat is my favorite. He really knows how to have a good time.

Aw, Waaw, Wat, and Wow. Can you pronounce 'Waaw' different from 'Waw'? Neither can I. It's like the old 'Get Smart' TV show with the arch-villain who kept insisting: "not 'Craw'...'Kraw!!!'.

And look at that 'cool kat' with the women here; my buddy 'Wat', who I have nick-named 'Jackie Chan'.

It's a great pleasure getting to know 'Wow'. She's the top student in her high school and was just awarded a scholarship to the number one University in Thailand. She is also a wonderful pianist (I hear you from upstairs sometimes, Wow.) The only trouble is that one of my favorite expressions is 'Wow!' and she must always feel like I'm calling for her.

Songkran Family [Part 1]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007

See the whole series: [Songkran Family Part 2], [Songkran Family Part 3]

Hold onto your potatoes everyone because it's day three of SONGKRAN!!!
Tenom is the Matriarch of the family.

The Songkran festival is the renewing of life through water. Each member of the family pours water into the hands of the elders and receives their blessings for the New Year.










Lek is Aw's mom and Tenom's neice. I think white is her color. Lek is so quiet and shy so it's fun to see her so slathered up.

Waew with her auntie A'tim.

They act like mother and daughter; or like co-conspirators. Look at that glint in both their eyes; trouble just looking for a place to happen.

Waew is a fashion model and was featured in Image Magazine this month in a swim-suit spread. She is also a well known VJ on MTV Thailand. [See Her MTV Website]

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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

Aw Canada Snow

Alberta Canada has been experiencing a cold snap for the last week. The weather report yesterday said it was -37 degrees Celsius. For some reason they like to add: "feels like -45."
Yes, it does.

My dear friend 'Aw' in Thailand says it is 'lawn jin jin' (very very hot) in Bangkok right now. She says she wishes she was here where it's cold. So for Aw's benefit I will go over a few tips for enjoying this wonderful Alberta weather.

This is me in the cold. The temperature is -33 degrees. Oh my God.

This is my car. I wasn't sure it was my car until I swept some of the snow off it to make sure. By the way, Aw thought it was funny when I told her I drive a 1985 Lincoln Town Car. 'So old Stevie'. But remember it's paid for and it runs.

Okay. Maybe it doesn't run. In Thailand they have Thai massage. In Canada we have 'battery hot tubs'. I didn't plug my car in last night so I had to take my battery inside to warm it up in the sink. And I did actually manage to start my car.

I don't want to go out today but I have to. Today I have an appointment with the International Travel Clinic to get some shots for my upcoming India trip.
I drove to the Travel Clinic where I got some wonderful advice. This is Mary-Beth. She's from the Philippines. She gave me shots in both shoulders and got me excited about visiting her country in the future. I had my consultation with Chris. He's from Northern India and we spent most of the time pouring over a map while he gave me great advice about how and where to travel.

After getting my shots and some very important information about what to do if I eat a bad chapatti, I headed over to see my fellow carpenter; Duncan. This is Duncan's dog; Roxy. This is how Roxy deals with the cold weather.

In Canada when it's cold, we eat. In this case, we had Ted Heller's favorite meal at Ricky's Restaurant; The Roast Beef dinner with Yorkshire pudding. 'Aroi mark mark' (very delicious).

At the end of the day I got a call from my friend Malcome (who sounds just like Raymond Burr). He invited me for dinner at the Olive Garden...where we had some more great food.

I had lots of adventures today but what I enjoyed most was settling in to my Monk's Cell in an unfinished basement room, where I'm staying for a few more days, and reading my Wilbur Smith book. All I kept thinking when I was reading was: 'I wish I was in Bangkok. It's too cold here'.

Nha Trang Boat Trip

March 22 2006

Nha Trang is my first stop on the Bus Tour. It's the place to get pampered. It's a sexy vacation place with lots of spas, great beaches and wonderful sights to see. I booked a boat tour the first day I arrived.
We were all shuttled to the pier where there were many boats just like this one filling up with tourists.
Our guide welcomed us to the boat and away we went, out to Sea. There are many Islands off the Coast of Nha Trang, and many beautiful resorts.
The thing I notice about Vietnam is that there are many people from Vietnam who are on these tours. In Thailand it was rare to see a Thai on board as a visitor. I think you guys are 'Tuanah and Haianh Pham from Hanoi.
And you two are newlyweds right? Dinh and Minh Chau? Work with me people.
And I hope you two are 'Anh and Thuy' from Hanoi. I think this woman has a beautiful face. Of all the people on the boat, for some reason I just gravitated to these three couples. I find the Vietnamese people very approachable. I find that because of my age and the fact that I'm a bit of a geek, I tend to get along with the local cultures better than the younger travelers from my own heritage. Go figure...
These are traditional Vietnamese boats for fishing and moving supplies around. A few of our bunch went for a ride to try one out.
Meanwhile, the cooks on the boat prepared a feast for us..We were served rice, fruit, French bread and a few Vietnamese dishes that looked like spring rolls. This culture borrows from the many countries who have occupied their land throughout the last thousand years. The result is a wonderful culinary diversity. (Wow, I think all that reading is helping my vocabulary).
After lunch we had a surprise. The crew brought out some instruments and we all got song sheets. We got to try some karaoke and sang the company song. By the end of the session a bunch of us were dancing on the table.
And yes, those coconuts are real. This is our Tour guide. He will do anything for the morale of the boat. These guys were here for a fun day and we were were very pleasantly surprised to see how much they did to make the day memorable. I think I'm going to need therapy before I'll be willing to drink cocoa nut milk again though.
The water is wonderful here. It's clean and warm and very refreshing. Our boat stopped for an hour while we did some snorkeling. There is a coral reef right near by where I saw a rainbow of colors and some fantastic fish. The only question you have to ask yourself is: am I jumping into the water here or coming up?

I swam for a long time, just enjoying the warm sunny day here in March. Sorry to hear about the snow in Canada. Life's all about choices, eh?
We stopped off at an Island resort for a couple of hours. This mermaid is the symbol of this particular place.

Some of our crew went para sailing ($12 a ride). Others went swimming. I just went for a walk down the beach until I met up with the manager of this resort. He invited me to sit down and have a whiskey with him. We sat and talked for a while and he asked me about Canada. This is such a nice way to spend a day. This seems like a dream. A few of us took this round boat to a floating fishing village. These people live on the water and have a marine farm. They catch undersized creatures and keep them in netted holding tanks until they are a better size to sell.

It's a bit hard to see but this is a squid the size of my foot. If you look carefully you can see her eyes. I kept thinking of the Jules Verne book: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. I can understand why he chose this creature to grab the submarine. It's a powerful animal.
One of the women who took us here made a motion in the water which attracted the squid to us the way you would attract a dog to come and see you. This squid is very tame. Unfortunately she will be very delicious very soon.

She may not speak much English but she decided I was pretty interesting. I think it's because I look like a Buddhist Monk. We had a great time joking around and they were very proud of their fishing village. By the end of the boat trip today I was happy and feeling very relaxed.