Songkran Festival

A couple weeks ago I traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a festival called Songkran. It's the Thai New Year and how long it lasts varies from city to city. In Chiang Mai it was about 4 days. I think it was supposed to be 3 officially but some people wanted to keep the party going. The moment you walk outside you have to be ready to get wet. People are spraying you with hoses, dumping buckets on you, or shooting you with water guns. I guess the meaning behind it is it's supposed to wash away the old year and welcome in the new. This is something I've been meaning to go experience while in Asia since I read an article about unique festivals around the world (maybe try to do Holi next year). It happens throughout the country, but the major cities are the best places to see it with locals and tons of tourists packing the streets. The amount of water guns you see for say is unbeeeeelievable. You got your little dinky ones, some bigger Super Soaker guns and then backpack tanks strapped to a hose that can pump out some water pressure. It was definitely awesome. At times I felt bad for people that were in no mood to get wet. I saw two girls running down the sidewalk with their suitcases as people outside shops sprayed them with water. Hopefully nothing electronic inside was damaged, but there's not a lot of mercy during Songkran. If you're in a tuk-tuk with nothing to defend yourself, and you're waiting at a traffic light, you're done. Also, I thought people would be a little territorial over their own water supply to refill buckets/guns/whatever but everyone was very friendly and welcomed us to refill in their big trash can. People brought in huge blocks of ice to put in them for that extra shock value. To be honest, it was no fun to be hit with warm water on an already hot day so I preferred being refreshed with the ice water but some friends didn't. I'd recommend everyone go to Thailand to see what Songkran is like. Make sure to take precautions like wearing safety goggles (I also used ear plugs) and plastic cases to protect phones. I can't speak for what it's like in the other cities like Phuket and Bangkok but Chiang Mai already has a cool atmosphere so it's even better with Songkran.



Another reason I traveled to Thailand was to reunite with some teacher friends from Austria. Some of them were teaching in another part of the country and one more flew from Canada to hang out with all of us. So it was also great to catch up with some friends.

Some major highlights besides Songkran throughout the week I was there were going to an elephant sanctuary, zip-lining, watching a Muay Thai fight and doing a Thai cooking class.

I've done zip-lining before and the Thai cooking class was nice, but being with some elephants up close was a unique experience. These are elephants that were rescued from logging camps and tourist spots for people to ride elephants. Most people probably don't think of what goes on behind the scenes as you ride on one of these elephants but there's a lot of cruelty. So instead in their new home, people come to feed them, cover them with mud (protects them from bacteria) and then bathe them afterwards. I was surprised to find that the elephant skin was actually quite bristly with a lot of hairs sticking out of them. I thought it would just be like feeling some old leather. The elephant sanctuary is called Mae Rim Elephant Sanctuary and they always look for volunteers to act as tour guides. They said if you stay for about 3 weeks then room and board is fully covered. I could see myself taking some time off from teaching and hanging out with elephants every day for a month. They are awesome animals.

Watching an evening of Muay Thai was pretty cool too. It was the first time I had been to any sort of boxing match. We met some other tourists from Canada and Gibraltar that were knowledgeable about the sport which made watching it more enjoyable. All types of people were represented during the many fights we watched. There was a fight between two foreigner women and some very young kids also fought. I can only imagine how much tougher fighters those kids are going to be when they grow up. Since I don't know much about Muay Thai I can't say why exactly but before every fight there was a bit of a ritual. Sometimes it was just walking around the ring but other times one fighter would do almost like a dance in the middle of the ring while the opponent watched. Not sure if it was because they were a challenger or not.

Below are just a few of the many videos I took, but I can't upload anything directly to this article over 100 MB or about 10 seconds so here are just a few short clips from Songkran and going to the river with the elephants. I plan on making a longer video compiling all of the stuff I did in Chiang Mai at a later time. Also turn down the volume a bit because I think I forgot to adjust for that when I added background music.

Chinese New Year in Sri Lanka

Just a small portion of the total dumplings

This past week was the start of Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. It's somewhat remarkable to see what happens in China during this time. It's considered to be the largest annual migration of people, which obviously makes sense because China has so many people, but still. So many small businesses will close their doors for about a week as people return to their hometown for the holiday. Cities with millions of people normally can look like ghost towns. Last year I got to experience what it was like to celebrate with a Chinese family. New Year's Eve as I guess you would call it is all about making a ton of dumplings and eating it with your direct family. The next day is an even bigger meal with the extended family. Kids put on their new clothes to welcome in spring and set off little firecrackers. Also, the only TV show playing for several days is a big variety show put on by the Chinese governments. The performances can be pop songs or small skits with themes about family and country.

This year, I journeyed to my 25th country: Sri Lanka. It was only for about 4 full days so it was a little short to get a real feel for the country. I only got to visit Colombo and Galle, two of the major cities to see. On one hand, I would like to see other cities in the country that are not beach destinations, like Kandy, but on the other hand my experience in Colombo in particular was a little underwhelming, so I think I would prefer just traveling to a new country.

Most of my uneasiness with being in Sri Lanka stems with this focus on making money. Anqi and I were walking in a park and a Sri Lankan man walked up to us and introduced himself as the head gardener. I'm not very good at saying no, as anyone who's familiar with my experiences in NYC can attest to, so I walked along with him as he pointed out these various types of trees and showed us some fruit bats. For a while we kept saying we needed to return to our driver showing us around  but he kept insisting we have to see the next tree, the next location. Finally, when enough was enough and we said we were leaving, he held out his hand for a tip. I figured this would be coming, so I had readied some money and when I gave it to him, he looked at me and told me to give more. I've traveled across many countries in Asia and so many people say "People of Country X are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet." It irks me because as you travel you see how there are good and bad people in all countries. No country has exclusively friendly or rude people. And having traveled and lived in different Asian countries, I'm used to local shop owners trying to get me to come in and buy their merchandise because I'm white. I know there's a foreigner price and a local price. But I have never seen people come up and talk to you and then expect compensation for that. Why should I pay for that? Our tuk tuk driver took us to many temples and places around Colombo, and taught me about life in Sri Lanka that I was curious about, so I gave him a nice tip. That first full day in Sri Lanka cast a shadow over the rest of my time there and I became more distrustful of people. Were they helping me because they're friendly or because they expected some money out of it?

Now that I got that little rant out of my system, the rest of my time was pretty enjoyable. The train ride to Galle was hot and crowded but that's Asia. I thought it was pretty cool to see these men walking through the cars selling little oranges, fried shrimp and snacks out of these huge boxes. They had a stash somewhere because as they ran out, they'd be back again with a full box. The picture I have on the right is when many had already gotten off, so you just need to imagine these guys pushing their way through some very crowded train cars.










Once we got to Galle, we went to a nice beach area nearby called Unawatuna and the hotel was pretty cool. It had a little sea wall so you could get right up to the water and chill on a beach chair overlooking it.

Some things I learned and noticed while in Sri Lanka. The majority of the country is Buddhist, but there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians as well. It seems like most tourists coming to Sri Lanka are Russian. It's illegal to be in a photo with your back facing a statue of Buddha. Having just come from China, and even Indonesia, it was amazing to see how few people smoked. Our tuk tuk driver would point out various buildings under construction and say, "China government." I know Chinese foreign investment plays a big part in developing economies and that was very clear to see in Colombo. Also, Sri Lankan style curry and rotti are delicious.

So it was a short visit, and I wish I could have had enough time to see more of the country. I'm also bummed I couldn't decided on a cool souvenir to bring home for my budding museum collection. Sri Lanka is known for its gemstones as well as tea but also some cool wood and stone carvings. There's also apparently a budding industry for elephant dung paper, but I didn't see that in any of the souvenir stores I went to. Maybe I'll be back there again one day to give the country a second chance.

Ayubowan

Christmas and New Year's Eve

Yesterday we had our first snowstorm, so winter is finally here. And now on my day off, I decided to sip on some hot cocoa and write a new blog post. A lot of people ask me if Christmas is celebrated in China. Just like in Japan, another country with a tiiiiny % of Christians, it is thanks to American values being exported overseas. But the meaning gets lost. It's just another day like Valentine's Day to go out and buy presents for people. At my school, we have some special Christmas days for students to come in and just play some games and win candy. A lot of students dressed up in costumes, some Christmas appropriate and others seemed like they were recycling their Halloween costumes. For example, a boy was dressed up as Captain America.

Now neither country has the day off on the 25th, so all the celebrating happens on Christmas Eve. In Japan, families eat KFC and Christmas cake. In China, all hotels and Western restaurants that cater to foreigners would have some kind of Christmas dinner specials As you can see, I went for a traditional meal while Anqi decided to go for some chimichangas. To be fair, they were quite delicious but a little unorthodox.

Also, for some reason, people buy a lot of masks and costume headbands. 

Exhibit A: two people wearing blue devil horns. Why devil horns? Because why not? It kind of goes back to the boy wearing a Captain America costume and why Japanese people eat KFC and Christmas cake. That's their perception of what Christmas is to Westerners.



Like last year, some foreign teachers got together this year to enjoy our day off, since for us, our contracts better have Christmas as a day off. People cooked different dishes, while others chipped in to help offset the costs of that delicious yet expensive turkey. We had a Yankee Swap and played a fun, competitive game involving unwrapping presents with oven mitts that I would love to bring back to my family's Christmas parties.

Unsurprisingly, New Year's Eve is a big party night just like anywhere in the world. You still have all the lights up. All the bars are packed and have special performances. In February, we'll have the Chinese New Year and that will need its own post because it's in a league of its own.