Yesterday morning we said goodbye to Bali and took off for Bangkok. Though I did enjoy Bali and had a great time, Kuta was a bit of a dump, and I wish we had rented a car or taken a tour to see other parts of the island like the huge rice fields and isolated temples... it's hard to get out of the touristy stuff when you're just there for a bit.
We arrived in the Bangkok airport early afternoon and while waiting for a bus into the city noticed the bus company employees were running around with squirt guns and had white sunscreen looking stuff smeared across their faces. Odd, I though, but hey, this is Thailand, who am I to judge. Then we got in the bus that was covered with handprints of the white stuff, really everywhere. Hmmm... something weird is going on here. As our bus tried to make its way through the jam packed traffic of the central city we noticed more and more people running around with squirt guns, throwing buckets of water at unassuming tourists in tuk-tuks (open air taxis) and smearing what we finally figured out to be clay on each other.
We finally found out that it was the last day of the Thai new years celebrations, which last 3 days and are basically a free for all water party with food stalls everywhere and music, everything a major festival has. What an amazing time to arrive in the heart of Thailand! We were planning on catching an overnight train or bus down to Surat Thani, where we could take a ferry to Ko Pha Ngan, where the full moon party is. However, they were all full by the time we got there so we booked a cheap hostel, threw our valuables in plastic bags to bring with us and went to find the heart of the celebrations. We ended up in hordes of hundred of thousands (I've been trying to google the exact number, because I have never been surrounded by so many people in my life) of people soaking each other. As we passed people with clay in their buckets, they would gently put some on our cheeks and say "happy new year" in Thai. Thanks to my blonde hair and our dead-giveaway tourist excitement, we ended up probably the most squirt-gunned and clay painted people on the street. All was fun and games until I got clay in my contacts and had to blindly duck behind Montana to make our way out of the hoardes, who continued to party for the better part of the night (I know this because our hostel walls were made of cinderblocks with empty centers... awesome). Anyway, we were giddy from being thrown face first into one of the biggest Thai celebrations of the year--what an awesome thing to be a part of, without even planning to!!
Today we are wandering around Bangkok looking at some temples and whatnot, and then embark on a 12-14 hour overnight bus ride that we have heard is quite a pain in the behind, but hey, it's all part of the experience right??? Soon enough I will be covered in day glo celebrating another holiday, the full moon party (though not so much a Thai holiday as an enticement for party-hardy and gullable tourists such as myself to pay double the price for accommodation, food and drinks).
I have wanted to come to Thailand for everrrrrr, and now that I'm finally here I can't wait to see and do everyyything!
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