Back for a water fight

"...I'm just back here for a good ol' water fight!", said my friend Shawn recently, of his return to Chiang Mai. I couldn't have put it better myself. The reason I am back is surely the same, although in local lingo the water fight is known as Songkran. This festival is the Thai New Year; the beginning of a new astrological year in keeping with the old lunar calendar of Siam. The festival was originally a series of Buddhist merit-making activities, such as: bringing home cooked food and robes to the monks, gathering sand from the river to deposit at the base of the temple to "raise" it (necessary in old times when the festival was right after the rainy season), or the traditional pouring of water on elders or newly ordained monks while uttering good luck wishes. Well, in true thai spirit, the latter has evolved quite merrily into a 4 day street water fight. One of the owners of our guesthouse, Yo, particularly revels in the wet t-shirt look on the female bunch.

We have been assured a huge tank of water, cooled by tons of ice (a godsend in this 40 degree daytime heat!) on the back of the Walai House pick-up truck. In fact, last night we discussed making some t-shirts for us all to wear. I fear Yo will prescribe the female models be white and not too thick a cotton! Anyway, the festivities will take place from the 12th - 15th of this month, and this truly is the reason why I have returned. Don't expect much mailing form me those days cause the city shuts down and becomes party central! :-) I am looking forward to it....and in the meantime, building up some resistance to the sun by visiting my local swimming pool for some early morning swims.

After 5 months+ of travelling and little working-out (aside from occasional trekking or diving or moto-cross driving ... which for me IS a workout), my body has rebelled in the form of flabby and showy tummy syndrome. I have had many things in my lifetime, but tummy was not one of them, and it sure isn't in my immediate plans. So, my visits to the sports complex have become quite frequent since my return. I am also happy to report that my tennis lessons are paying off. My teacher invited me to venture into the back court and try hitting one ball more than once! Dunno what it was but I took it as a sign of progress. Adding to my self preservation of late, today I visited a nearby beauty salon for some well overdue hair waxing! (no, NOT Porn Hair Studio!). The blog faithfuls among you will probably realise this exciting event has been missing in my calendar since my threading experience in the backstreets of Vietnam (yeah, the one where I got invited to a wedding in the middle of a downpour in Hoi An. I have many theories on the reason for this invitation, namely that the poor woman was so appalled by the amount of hair she had to remove, that she figured if she stitched me up with some bloke at the wedding, I'd take care not to let the monkey effect take over!) Well, all well and good, I now feel quite sexy and much lighter (maybe I should get on the scales!). Thankfully, the swimming pool is olympic size so few people seem to realise there has been a monkey swimming in the lane beside them....or maybe that's why the pool was so empty! Hmmmm

So, for those of you wondering what it is I occupy my day with, well, mostly self grooming and LOTS of hours facing the computer keeping you all in the loop! (I must admit I come here for the daytime air con that is keeping me sane in this heat). Bring on the water! I'm ready for a good ol' soak!