Protests, Pad thai, and Supersoakers

Let me do a little summary of my asian experience thus far.

1. Brunei.

A random, tiny, almost city state muslim country by malaysia and indonesia. No alcohol allowed in the country. Our flight there had to be blessed before take off, meaning a prayer to allah was on the tv and the loudspeakers for all to enjoy. And we did make it there safely. In the capital city there are some giant and extremely grand mosques built by the super rich sultan. Interesting contrast in that country between the grand mosques and the poor water villages right next door.

2. Bangkok.

Bangkok is just ridic. People, stuff, and people selling stuff everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Can't walk 5 feet without someone trying to sell you someting or a tuk tuk driver asking where asking to take you somewhere. It was awesome though, some cool temples, buddhas everywhere, and some good asian grub.

As you may have seen on the news, there is also a big protest going on there. Our first few days in Bangkok this was a pretty chill event, peeps hanging out wearing red shirts while a guy literally talked 24/7 over a loudspeaker. Our tuk tuk drivers would drive right through it, no worries. The day we left, however, was a diff story. We were in a taxi heading to the weekend market when all the sudden traffic diverted as a convoy of miliary trucks drove by. Tons and tons of soldiers. Our driver immediately said he was just taking us right back to Khao San Rd, the main touristy area, because it was not safe elsewhere. So we get back to Khao San, walk down the road a bit and realize that the protestors are marching past at the end of the road. We see people throwing things and chanting, but nothing too crazy. The vendors on Khao San were freaking out though, and all packing up their stuff with much urgency, thinking that the protesters might start marching right down Khao San. There were a couple times it looked like they were coming down our road, so everyone started running. Then we would stop running and see that they were not coming, so we stopped and watched again. This happened a few times.

Eventually it was time to get our bus to Chiang Mai and get the hell out of there. Little did we know that to get to our bus we had to walk about a mile across the freeway that the protestors had shut down. It felt like a war movie, the 40 backpackers walking to their bus, walking on the wrong side of the freeway in the middle of the road, past army trucks with slashed tires and smashed windshields, buses and cars blocking the road. We were like the kids leaving town for safety. The red shirted protesters were actually very friendly to us, taking pictures of us and telling us "Welcome to Thailand! So sorry! Sorry!" Because they felt bad we were leaving Bangkok. Either way, we finally made it to our bus through the protestors and army trucks and are now safely enjoying Chiang Mai.

3. Chiang Mai.

Here there is no sign of protest, only signs of partying. Right now everyone is celebrating New Years here, which basically consists of a massive water fight. Everyone, kids, teens, adults, old people, are walking around with supersoakers, squirt guns, water guns with extra ammo backpack, buckets, and any other type of water throwing devices. And everyone just drenches one another. A little thai kid will just come up to you and throw a whole bucket of water in your face. It's ridic!!

Thai people are driving around the main street in their pick up trucks with about 20 people in the back plus a barrel full of water to throw at people. Then we have the people in tuk tuks, and then the mopeds. Basically its people in the street vs. People in their vehicles, but you just soak anyone near you in the meantime. Since it is warm out, feels great to be wet. However, that's why it's popular to really own people with ice water. Some put massive blocks of ice in their water in case just simply dousing someone with normal water isn't enough. While all this is going on, we have club music blasting from massive speakers while people are dancing and drinking some cheap asian beer. This is going on all over the city as well, so you really can not go anywhere without getting soaked. Oh and today, on the 4th day of this water maddess, it has turned into a foam water fight party. So ridic. One more day to go.