Well its here! I was riding to work today when i was held up by a parade of Thais dressed in outrageously Asian costumes. Golden umbrellas, children in flashy colors on the shoulders of their equally flashy relatives. Cymbals, drums, flutes, the whole she-bang. It was impressive and made me late for work, but no problems. Times like this I wish I had my camera and that I hadn't sent it south with the boys to take pictures. (hint hint: TAKE PICTURES!!!!)
While the national government declared this year there was to be [officially] 5 days of Songkran, the governor of Chiang Mai decided last week to extend Songkran to 10 days in the province। So Songkran is gradually picking up the pace. You can't walk into any shop without seeing the display of water guns for sale. Including Seven Eleven, Minimarts, Pharmacys, Restaurants and even a door to door water gun vendor. Its all about the marketing people!
The weather is getting unbearable. I now find no enjoyment at walking in from the heat into an air conditioned building because it feels like my skin is being raised a few inches from the meat. Very awkward and makes you go "Whooo"... thus making people look at you funny.
Whooooooooooooo.
31.3.07
Stupidity...
I forgot to let you all know that since the end of February, Chiang Mai has been under an almost dangerous level of pollution.
Royal Flora, the flower expo, that was here from November-January brought with it millions of tourists. So in order for the city of Chiang Mai to look its best, all districts and cities were ordered to not burn any overgrowth, trash or start and misc. fires. So of course when Febrary rolled around everyone burned everything!
Because of this and the already horrid pollution, the sky looks like its in a constant state of fog. Its horrible. I'm buying a new one tonight.
Chiang Mai city hall's solution to the problem? Dump thousands of gallons of water into the air from firefighting airplanes. Thus causing it to rain... ?
They had several weeks of water dumping and no rain, just a massive increase of the mosquitoes that love to chomp on me when i sleep. And finally yesterday it all paid off.
The day started out like any other. Really really, hot. And then in the middle of the afternoon it got windy. Then the sky darkened and thunder was heard. The sky turned to a dark yellow, everyone who's been through a severe thunder storm or a tornado knows that color yellow. Then with a strike of lightning it rained.
20 seconds later, the storm blew away and the sun came out.
So after wasting millions of gallons of water, while most of the districts are experiencing a water shortage, for 20 seconds of rain that has done nothing to abate the pollution, what do you think is the lesson they learned?
They're going to try again tomorrow with more planes and more water.
Mother Nature: 1
Thailand: -3
Royal Flora, the flower expo, that was here from November-January brought with it millions of tourists. So in order for the city of Chiang Mai to look its best, all districts and cities were ordered to not burn any overgrowth, trash or start and misc. fires. So of course when Febrary rolled around everyone burned everything!
Because of this and the already horrid pollution, the sky looks like its in a constant state of fog. Its horrible. I'm buying a new one tonight.
Chiang Mai city hall's solution to the problem? Dump thousands of gallons of water into the air from firefighting airplanes. Thus causing it to rain... ?
They had several weeks of water dumping and no rain, just a massive increase of the mosquitoes that love to chomp on me when i sleep. And finally yesterday it all paid off.
The day started out like any other. Really really, hot. And then in the middle of the afternoon it got windy. Then the sky darkened and thunder was heard. The sky turned to a dark yellow, everyone who's been through a severe thunder storm or a tornado knows that color yellow. Then with a strike of lightning it rained.
20 seconds later, the storm blew away and the sun came out.
So after wasting millions of gallons of water, while most of the districts are experiencing a water shortage, for 20 seconds of rain that has done nothing to abate the pollution, what do you think is the lesson they learned?
They're going to try again tomorrow with more planes and more water.
Mother Nature: 1
Thailand: -3
27.3.07
One More..
I compiled a few Humanism documents including the Manifestos for a personal reference page. Here is the Snapshirt Word Cloud it generated:
Songkran is coming up in 3 weeks. Thats the Thai New Year. This year they are celebrating the year 2550! Woohoo! :) If you remember me telling you before, Songkran is the week long holiday where they splash water on eachother all day long. I don't work for five days, so its my minivacation.
Its going to be a lot of fun. The biggest Songkran celebration is here in Chiang Mai. The boys are really going to miss out. I sent the camera to them, so you'll have to see if they post any pictures online because i can't. :(
I might be going to an elephant camp next weekend. It is owned by one of my adult students that i teach at night. I'll ride on the elephants, go down the river on a raft, eat from a restaurant in the trees and climb across rickety bridges like the common tourist i'm not. What fun!
If you wanna check out that site:
http://www.geocities.com/thai.fly0/humanism.html
Songkran is coming up in 3 weeks. Thats the Thai New Year. This year they are celebrating the year 2550! Woohoo! :) If you remember me telling you before, Songkran is the week long holiday where they splash water on eachother all day long. I don't work for five days, so its my minivacation.
Its going to be a lot of fun. The biggest Songkran celebration is here in Chiang Mai. The boys are really going to miss out. I sent the camera to them, so you'll have to see if they post any pictures online because i can't. :(
I might be going to an elephant camp next weekend. It is owned by one of my adult students that i teach at night. I'll ride on the elephants, go down the river on a raft, eat from a restaurant in the trees and climb across rickety bridges like the common tourist i'm not. What fun!
