Kanchanburi
After escaping the flooded peninsula of Thailand I headed to a small town about 2 hours north of Bangkok in hopes of getting some sun and rest. The main attraction of the town is the Erawan Falls which is a 7 tiered waterfall that winds down a mountain about a mile long. The water is a light clear teal and contains small fish that give you a pedicure if you stick your feet in the water. It was a hot day so we stopped at each tier in the waterfall to cool off and enjoyed a rock slide at one of the pools. One of the perks of being a teacher in Thailand is for most tourist attractions upon showing our work permit we get the entrance fee of a Thai person rather than a tourist. For the Falls it cost a tourist about 200 baht to enter rather than just 40 for Thais. Too bad I forgot my permit this day!!
Songkran
Songkran might be Thailand's biggest holiday (besides the King's Birthday of course!) and many of the volunteers decided to meet up and celebrate it together in the most well known place for songkran, Chiang Mai. Songkran is the Thai new year that happens between April 13-15th (in places like chaing mai it stretches to more like 5 days) and consists of a city wide friendly water fight. This is a water fight on the scale of thousands of people. Traditionally though the throwing of water was a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddhas for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder. It also happens in Thailands hottest month, April, and can relive some of the heat. However, over the years it lost much of its or gins and has turned into a tourist party among the streets. Upon arriving we all got fully equipped with water guns for as soon as you step out of your room it would be fair game to become completely drenched in water. So for the next 4 days we walked the streets with our water guns engaging in a water fight with the young and old. Thais would drive around in their pickup trucks with garbage cans full of water drenching people and letting the foreigners on for a ride through the jam packed streets
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Chiang Rai & Mae Sai
For a night I stopped in Chiang Rai a northern city 3 hours north of Chiang Mai to see the famous white temple. The white temple is one of a kind in Thailand consisting of modern art. There are many images of modern day impurities such as alcohol and cigarettes in statues outside the temple and scary devil creatures. The temple is made all white and has shiny mirrors to represent the purity of Buddha.
After leaving Chaing Rai I took another 2 hour bus still north to Mae Sai, a small border town with Burma. After being in tourist destination for the last month traveling going to a place where few white people reach was refreshing to back in Thai/Burmese culture. I could also noticeably see more poverty in this area with many children begging for money. The majority of the people are Burmese and don't even speak Thai (which I quickly found out when I got confused faces). The town is officially the most northern part of Thailand and it was interesting to see the very secretive Burma where I learned you have to have a "guide" to follow you the entire 24 hours your allowed in the country. I decided not to go in but at least I got to see it from Thailand.
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