1st
Slick
It has been monsooning here in Thailand for about 2 weeks - on and off heavy heavy thunderstorms. As a result, the weather has been a bit cooler, but when I go out there is a good chance that I will get entirely soaked at least once.
Songkran was great - I’ve now heard both sides of the debate about the appropriateness of the festivities. The ‘traditionalists’ don’t approve of the whole gigantic waterfight part. The youths are all about it. I thought it was great fun - what could be better than having an all-out, no-one-is-safe waterfight in every city in Thailand?
I went to Chantaburi province with my Uncle Yuit (who lived with my family for a year in Los Angeles while my father was receiving treatment in Bangkok) and Aunt Ging to visit my aunt’s family. They were all really fun and gave me several hours of Thai language lessons. We had a huge seafood feast along the river for dinner and in the morning I got to take part in this Buddhist ceremony in which fifty or so extended family members and close friends fed a troupe of monks (ritualistically). Chantaburi is known for its fruit and there is an overwhelming variety of it during this season. The most interesting (but not the tastiest) is something called Doolean, ‘the king of the fruits’. It is a large (about 1 ft. in circumference) and spiky. I’ll try to post a picture, but for now I will leave it to your imaginations.
I will be leaving for Kolkata, India on May 21. Next week I am going south to one of the beautiful beaches for a night. Also, my uncle is taking me to the tiger temple to play with some tame tigers. Damn I love life.
