Splishity splash!

Songkran has come and gone once again, and this year I can proudly say that I cleverly managed to avoid getting doused into oblivion. Now don't get me wrong, I love Songkran. I love what it represents culturally and historically, and I love seeing everyone out on the streets having the time of their lives. However, getting pasty talcum powder smothered across your face and having zits explode across your face as a result of said smothering ain't so much fun. Ah well, but at least zits are better than chicken pox. My friend Coke went to Soi Khao San last year to do some Songkran-frolicking with the farang tourists and backpackers, and ended up contracting a nasty case of chicken pox. Poor guy.


For anyone who isn't familiar with the Thai new year, I can assure you that traditional Songkran festivities weren't nearly as, uh, fervently wild as they are nowadays. The whole reason why there's water-splashing in the first place is because it represents the washing away of bad luck and past wrongdoings. What used to be light sprinkling here and there, has now mutated into full-fledged waterfights with militia-like folks who come by the truckload - armed with supersoakers - and who will drench you senseless if you don't run for the hills or douse them back with your own superpowered supersoaker. Songkran literally means "to move" or "change place", and this carries zodiac references since it refers to the change in position of the sun from Aries to Taurus. So, because of this, Songkran usually falls around April 10-18 and is comprised of three sanook-filled, splish-splashing days. This year, Songkran lasted from April 13-15, but the general feeling everyone had was, aw, what the heck, it's nearly the weekend anyways, so why don't we extend the holiday to the 18th?


Since everyone knows that you don't wear makeup or white clothes during Songkran (that is, unless you want to look like a drenched clown and want the whole world to catch a glimpse of your very au naturel birthday suit), I made sure to climb into my car makeup-free last Tuesday, and headed for Aparna's, since she was scheduled to leave for Oxford the next evening. I drove, oh, I don't know, about two feet out of my driveway (okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little here =P) before getting splashed to smithereens by a horde of kids who came flocking to my car with their fluorescent water guns. To say they seemed happy to see my car would be an understatement. These kids were ECSTATIC to see a car that hadn't yet been soiled by Songkran festivities. In fact, I actually saw one jump. With glee. They came at me with their supersoakers, came up to my window and smacked their gooey, talcum powder-smothered hands onto my window, smeared it for good measure, and laughed. I laughed too. It was fun. But still, I have to say I was overjoyed to be in the safe haven of my nice and dry car, and not outside getting rampaged to death with powdery goo. Urgh, if you've ever had to remove doughy talcum powder and other odd objects from your hair, you too would understand my appreciation.


Got splashed four times before reaching the exit of my moo ban. Heh, subsequent splashings by other people washed away all the goo and palm prints that the kids left behind.

Like most Bangkokians, I usually flee for the beach on the first day of Songkran. However, this year we didn't head to Phuket until the end of the holiday, in order to avoid the large crowds. So anyways, this was my first time in a long time to be in Bangkok at the beginning of the Songkran holiday. It was so bizarre - the streets were virtually empty, and lo and behold, there wasn't ANY TRAFFIC AT ALL. Zip, nilch, nada. None, I tell ya, and it tickled me silly because I was able to drive 130 km/hr on Viphavadee-Rangsit road at rush hour, which I have never been able to do. Ever. The absence of traffic was just so foreign of a concept, it almost didn't feel like Bangkok.


Bangkok, the ghost town?

When I neared the Victory Monument (Anusaoareechai), I took my usual shortcut through a maze of small sois. Out popped more waterguns and buckets of water!


Hehe, gotta love the "please have mercy on me!" expression on the motorcyclist.

While waiting at a stop light, I couldn't help but notice a group of rowdy farang tourists outside of a dodgy motel, having fun with all the splashing and dousing. At one point, four of them ran out into the streets and headed towards the cars that were parked at the traffic light. What happened next irked me like heck - they actually tried to open peoples' car doors and splash them INSIDE their cars! They even approached my car and tried to open it, damn bastards! Even worse, three others from the same group went chasing after this old man who made it very apparent that he did NOT want to get splashed or smothered in powder. Those stupid idiots still went running after him and literally pinned him to a wall before roughly shoving powder in his face! How RUDE! While I generally think that most farang tourists who visit Thailand are chill, well-travelled folk, I guess that there's still a select few who have nothing but blatant disregard for locals customs, as well as the very important fact that elders are highly respected here. Argh.


I swung by Siri's place to pick her up, and so with No Doubt rocking away in the background, we headed for Aparna's. Naturally, we got lost amidst all our yakking and ended up missing a turn. Heh, whoops. We ended up on some freeway headed towards Ladprao and had to find our way back to Ekamai. Natural navigators *cough cough* that we are, we finally found our way to Aparna's in no time at all.


It was great to see Aparna again! The last time I saw her, Akira, Jup, Gug, and Matt were there too, and we all had a grand old time laughing our butts off, recounting high school days gone by. Since the last time we saw her was nine months ago, Siri, Aparna, and I had so much to catch up on. We found ourselves holed away in her bedroom where we blabbed away for hours. Aparna's been Europe-hopping everywhere this past year and is heading for France in a few months, as well as Athens for the upcoming Olympics. Listening to her made me want to hop onto a plane and head for the UK! I SO can't wait till next year!


(If you read my Xanga entry from the last time I met up with Aparna, it'll probably be rather apparent to you that I can't get enough of that famous Rao cooking. Mmmm. The curries and homemade yoghurt were absolutely divine.)


Aparna had a few funny stories to share. Apparently, when they say "pants" in the UK, they're actually referring to underwear, and when "trousers" are mentioned, they're actually referring to the US equivalent of pants. Anyways, there was this one time Aparna went running to her friend (in the library, mind you) exclaiming rather excitedly, "I just got this really great deal on a pair of denim pants!" Hehe, you can probably imagine all the stares she received because of that.


And as if Aparna's entire Oxford experience wasn't absolutely fantabulous already, she told us that on the first day of orientation, a few upperclassmen came up to her inquiring "if [she] wanted to cox." "EXCUSE ME???", was her obvious reply. "Cox, you know, do you want to be a coxer," the guys before her repeated. "Huh? A what??? You want me to... COX?" Okay, at this point she was obviously thinking to herself, WTF is a god frickin coxer? Like you, she initially assumed that this had dirty connotations, but after a brief explanation and a few laughs, she finally learned that a coxer is the person on the rowing team who sits at the very front of the boat and calls out directions. Haha, apparently they thought that her small frame would be advantageous to their team, since she's so light. And so, from that day forth, fortunate Aparna then became the highly esteemed coxer for eight very studly rowers. I have an uncanny feeling that they're part of the reason why waking up so early in the morning and having to endure blistering winds upon a rowboat ain't so bad. ;-)


While the thought of backpacking through Europe during breaks has got me really excited about med school next year, I also can't wait to meet all the interesting European folk. Aparna told us about her classmates, and they sound awesome. They're from all over the continent - Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Scandinavia, France - and because of that, it all makes for a much more dynamic and interesting learning experience. One of the reasons why I decided to further my studies in the UK instead of the US is because I was born and raised in the States (at least for the first half of my life), and so I already know what life is like there. I want to experience something new and completely different, and so the whole European experience and cultural exchange bit really appealed to me. After all, you're only young once.


If we look really happy, it's because Aparna's mom makes some damn good Indian food. Yurm. But aww, my pic with Siri came out all blurry.

~*~

This is totally unrelated to Songkran, but I rue the day I introduced Homestar
runner.com to my bro. I thought he'd get a kick out of it because we both have the same sort of demented, stupid-funny humor, but I didn't think he'd actually get obsessed with the darn thing! I mean, he's been going to the site practically every single freakin day, and has been checking out all of Strong Bad's past emails and the plethora of clips that they have there. He's even got Homestar Runner and Strong Sad's voices mastered to an art, and has been puttering around the house saying to everyone he sees, "Homestaw wunnah fwickin wox! Like, see-wiously." Anyone know any good therapists?




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