I never did find out why I could n’t upload any more photos while I was in Thailand, but now that I’m back in Australia here are just a few more photos from Songkran.
This is just part of a main CBD street closed off for the water fights !
I don’t know why, but for some reason I cannot upload any more photos via my hotel wi-fi, either to here or my pbase gallery. I’ve got a stack of photos from Songkran and more that might have to wait until I get back to Australia next week. I thought perhaps they had put a bandwidth size limit in place, but no matter how small I resize them, I cannot upload any photos. The girls at reception just gave me blank stares when I asked if there was a problem with the wifi, no help there …
Perhaps I should take my laptop down to one of the bars offering free wifi and try uploading from there ?
I spent a few days down in “Russia-by-the-sea”, otherwise known as Pattaya. The town has always been known for it’s girlie bars but nowadays it gets an awful lot of package tourists from Russia, Korea and China that do not go there for the bars, well, not mainly anyhow ! They spend their days shopping or lazing on the beach, as I guess it is not quite beach weather in Russia yet ?
Many of the restaurants have menus in Russian, there are Russian signs everywhere, pamphlets for the multitude of condo projects are printed in Russian, they must really be spending some big money in the town. I even noticed a couple of russian “cabarets” with “only European girls”, although why any Russian guy would want to fly all the way to Thailand just to see some Russian/euro girls twirling around a chrome pole eludes me. I’m sure that even in Siberia they could see that for less than the price of an airfare to Thailand ? And I don’t imagine any extra services from the girls in those places would come cheaply either ? Tall blondes with big boobs have never been my type so I was n’t tempted to enquire …..
The main reason for my stay in pattaya was to check out some of the condos for rent, and the language schools. If and when I do move to Thailand I would sign up for Thai language lessons, and probably get the ED education visa. That pretty much limits my options to living in Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai or Phuket, as that is where you would find nearly all the approved schools for the visa. Chiang Mai is too cold in winter, too crowded in the tourist season, too polluted during the crop burning season and has too much traffic with no real public transport, so Chiang Mai is off the list. Phuket would be nice, except it is probably the most expensive place to live in Thailand, and has a limited number of schools to choose from. Which leaves Bangkok and Pattaya …..
Pattaya would be cheapest to live in as far as rent goes, it has a number of language schools, but if you are not a golfer (and I’m not) what would you do there ? It would be very easy to spend the money you save on rent on night time temptations, or spend your days drinking. Not for me, thank you. So I guess that leaves Bangkok …
Anyhow, I still have a few months to go before worrying about that. I’ve still got a few things on my to-do list before that, starting with the Whale sharks at Exmouth. I’ve booked my snorkelling trip for early June, so that leaves me a month to get from Sydney right across to Exmouth on the opposite side of the country. At $385 it will not be a cheap day out, but it is a once in a lifetime experience, so I hope it will be worth it ! Anyway, that’s all for now ….
Armed and dangerous
Today, April 13 is the official start of Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year, but the water fights have started early. Yesterday morning all was peaceful when I walked down the street, but when I returned an hour later it was bedlam. War had broken out a day early !
Traditionally Songkran is a time for bathing the hands of your elders, going to the temple and making merit, but nowadays it is the world’s biggest water fight. Usually it is very hot at this time of the year so you don’t mind getting wet but yesterday was relatively cool, and some of the water is icy cold!
These 3 girls were selling the “weapons of mass saturation” but managed to stay dry themselves.
With people on both sides of the road armed with super-soaker waterguns, buckets and hoses, anyone caught in the cross fire is going to get wet, especially if you are in an open-sided tuk-tuk stuck in traffic !
trapped in the crossfire.
Add loud traditional music blaring from the bars and plenty of alcohol flowing freely and you can imagine the party atmosphere. All the bars had signs posted, “no water inside”, but they just wasted paper ! They covered up the TVs and stereos but I was still half expecting somebody to get zapped ….water and electricity don’t mix! Hostilities cease at sunset, until the next day, so it is safe to go out at night. It is early morning now here in bangkok, and all seems calm ….but I’m sure that will change when the bars open ! I am probably going to the big street party/waterfight at Silom, so it is inevitable that I will get wet. The dress code ? Floral shirt, board shorts and sandals (and waterproof camera).
Unfortunately songkran not only brings fun, but also a horrendous death toll on the roads. Too many people trying to get home to the provinces driving too fast under the influence of alcohol causes hundreds of casualties every year. I will never drive anywhere at the beginning or end of Songkran, there are just too many idiots on the road driving to or from their home and Bangkok.
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Sydney before flying to Bangkok tomorrow, staying at the Sydney Central YHA. Anyone familiar with Sydney would know that there has been a Chinatown district for decades, and various other Asian restaurants nearby over the years, including some Thai restaurants that have come and gone. There are a couple of blocks on lower Pitt St. that have grown into a mini Thaitown lately, and walking down it at night it smelled more like Bangkok than Sydney !
Thumbs up to “Saap Thai” for a couple of great meals ! It will never get any awards for decor, not with cheap tables and slightly wonky chairs, but if you want good Thai food at a cheap price, it’s a place to try. On Friday night I was the only Caucasian in there, every other table had Thais enjoying some authentic food.
On the other hand, I cannot be so enthusiastic about “Muay Thai” …lets just say that I would n’t have the Panang Chicken there again. Unlike “Saap Thai” this place had no asian faces in it, which must say something I suppose ?
Talking of asian faces, I did wonder a couple of times what Pauline Hanson would have thought walking along lower Pitt street nowadays. The area has always been popular with Asian students studying at English language schools, but with Thaitown, Chinatown, plus Japanese and korean restaurants and shops around, it is even more popular nowadays. I think you could see more “white” faces on Sukhumvit Rd, Bankok, than on Pitt St, Sydney, yet in Chinatown there are always plenty of “white” faces crowding into the chinese restaurants and grocers. Thai food is very popular here, so why are n’t there more people in the restaurants in Thai town ? Perhaps they should put in a few spirit houses or shrines to create more of an atmosphere like they have in Chinatown ?
Rather than pay the extortionate parking fees at and near the airport I left my ute in storage in Newcastle while I’m over overseas and caught the train down to Sydney. What are the chances of somebody in the office there being on the same flight ? Rather unlikely I would have thought, but yes, one of the guys in the office was not only going to Bangkok, in the low season, but flying with the same airline on the same flight ! I wonder if he has booked into the same hotel as me ? Surely it cannot be that small a world, can it ?
Ebor Falls, Ebor NSW
Lower Ebor Falls, Waterfall Way, NSW
A dead end ?
I thought this sign, near Singleton, NSW, was rather apt ? Does this mean that there is officially no afterlife ?
That a trip to the cemetery is, dare I say it, a dead end ?
OK, OK, I can hear the groans from here !
Click to see my photos at Pbase.
Click to see my Youtube videos
Designing and building an Eco House in Thailand
Follow the Blonde Coyote and see more of the world!
Trying to live a creative life
a camping trip of ridiculous proportions
Changes in latitude, changes in attitude 