BANGKOK

I've been in Thailand for over a week now. Timothy and I arrived in Bangkok on the 12th of April and were hit with a wall of heat as we left the airport, quite a contrast from the moderate climate of Japan. Tokyo and Bangkok, two Asian cities that seem to rest on opposite ends of the spectrum, and just as I was getting used to things in Japan... BANGkok!!!

Our arrival into Bangkok just so happened to coincide with Songkran, the three day celebration of the Thai new year. One of the traditional activities involves young people splashing water over the hands of elders as a sign of respect. Afterwards the children go out and play, sing songs, and splash water on each other. What this translates into in Bangkok is a rowdy citywide water fight with the epicenter being around Khao San Road, the typically touristy/backpacker area of the city. People walk the streets armed with squirt guns and super soakers, or hang out on the sidewalks with big buckets of water, waiting to drench anyone who walks by. They also carry around little bowls of runny white clay that they rub onto peoples faces, sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently. There was a reason why I didn't bring my camera out...

I was excited to experience Songkran, but unfortunately the day we arrived the Thai government declared a state of emergency due to political unrest, protesting, and rioting in the streets of Bangkok. We didn't hear about this until after we got to our guesthouse, but I had wondered why our taxi had to detour around a few roadblocks and why I had seen tanks parked along the streets.

The next morning we heard that there had been violence during the night resulting in a handful of injuries and even a few deaths, and that the Thai government was threatening to shut down the Songkran festivities along Khao San Road. We went out anyways. After a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River, we explored a temple, and then found a place to eat and drink along the river. We took off towards Khao San Road after lunch and within five minutes we were covered in water and clay. The closer we got to the Khao San Road the crazier it got, and the celebrating raged on despite the government warnings. It was like a big, soaking wet, block party. Timothy and I weren't armed with squirt guns, so we just walked the streets getting drenched with water and smeared with clay.

After spending a little while in the heart of the festivities we made our way towards Wat Saket, or Golden Mount, a hilltop temple with great views of the city. All of a sudden a fleet of army trucks pulled up next to us and hundreds of soldiers began to unload. I young Thai man ran up to us and in broken English told us turn and go the other way. We looked back to see that the street we were on had been barricaded, the traffic was stopped. We ran out into the middle of the road, it was a pretty big street, an offshoot of a large square with a sculpture in the middle called Democracy Monument. We stood in the median and looked down the street, a sea of soldiers swarmed around a bus that had been lit on fire, black clouds of smoke rose up into the sky. We watched for a little bit as the bus went up in flames, and then got the hell out of there. Three blocks away the Songkran festivities raged on, the only sign of the nearby violence was the black clouds of smoke rising up from behind the buildings. Water gun warfare on one block, civil warfare on the next.

Bangkok was a little crazy to say the least. Since I left my camera behind, the only pictures I took were back at the guesthouse - the aftermath of Songkran.

The next day we left for the islands...