I haven't been dry in two weeks.
Our first week in Thailand was "Song Kran", which is a nation-wide water fight to celebrate the New Years. If you look it up, you'll find all sorts of meanings about family time and cleansing. It is really just an excuse to throw water at people. You cannot go out anywhere without getting soaked for almost an entire week. By the time Song Kran "officially" starts, you have gotten really good at avoiding buckets of water being thrown at you while you walk down the street. But then there are so many people, your ninja moves are worthless because avoiding one bucket, means stepping into another. Don't get me wrong, the days of Song Kran are incredibly fun. We bought water guns and wandered the city partaking in the madness. Bubble machines, water refill stations, live music. It was incredible. That was Friday through Sunday.
So Monday morning you expect it to be over. Maybe even Tuesday. But its not. Its just fewer participants. So you get wet, and then it is so hot you would think you would dry, but you just get to a point where you aren't sure if it is water or sweat. Thanks Song Kran lovers who want it to last an extra week.
Then Wednesday, some of your Thai friends take you to a lake for lunch and swimming. Again, spending the entire afternoon soaked. Because after you swim, you don't change. You go out in a rain storm and then wander the city for the rest of the afternoon.
Thursday, you get invited to make lunch at a friends house. But even that can't be dry. It turns into mixing some already cooked ingredients together and heading to the pool to devour them. It isn't cold in Thailand- its 90 degrees. But as soon as you get to the pool on the third story of the building, the wind is blowing and the sun hides behind the clouds. Of course I didn't bring a towel- I thought the sun would dry me off!
Friday morning you wake up to go ride elephants. These creatures are smart. They also have an incredible sense of humor. How so? They like to suck water into their trunks and spit it at you. Wet again. Even the baby elephant thinks its funny. He puts his trunk right up in your face to spit at you and then says "give me a banana". But no big deal, because we were going to a waterfall afterwards anyways. An INCREDIBLE waterfall, if I may say so. But today I was smart, I brought a towel and a change of clothes. Time to be dry!
Wrong. We leave the waterfall and get in the Son Ton just in time for the heavens to open up. We pull over to wait out the rain (of course getting wet the whole time because even though it is covered, there are no doors on the back.) When we start driving again we realize the rain was actually a thunderstorm, maybe even a tornado. Down powerlines, fallen trees, flooding. Of course, thirty minutes earlier, five miles away, we were frolicking in the water and climbing rocks under the waterfall.
Needless to say, I never got dry. I don't expect to anytime soon. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I love Thailand.
