We spent eight hours today, starting at around 10:00 o'clock, completely soaked with water. I had read about the Thai New Year celebration "Song Khran," but I would not have believed it to be as extreme as it turned out to be. But let me start where I left off: Phitsanulok. Following the recommendation of the director of the lower northern Thailand Tourist Authority (TAT), we spent the evening by the river running through Phitsanulok, where the Thai were celebrating the "food festival" -- it seems to me that the Thai, or Southeast Asian folk have a festival for almost anything to make it around the year... The road along the river was banked with little booths selling just about everything, from edible to handicrafts, with fair booths offering games such as darts, jumping castles, and live bands in between. Strolling around, we had a bite of the most appealing things -- I did stay away from roasted cockroaches, maggots, and other bugs this time, for I had already sampled them in Vietnam and felt no particular need to repeat the experience, although it was not revolting back then at all: it's just a little meat with a lot of crust that you don't want to eat, and the taste isn't particular. An excellent meal of noodles with some sort of sweet-spicy sauce, together with a beer and the company of some young Thai boys ended the evening for us and we returned to our hotel rather soon, with the intention to get up early to finish our errands and make a run for Sukhothai. So with our plane tickets and some fresh cash, we set out for "Sgt. Tawnee's Folklore Museum", a private collection of traditional Thai "things" -- tools, traps, toys, instruments, clothing, ... just about everything... Sgt. Tawnee was a poor soldier who realised that people were forgetting about how their ancestors went about to solve everyday's problems and consequently started collecting anything and everything -- a truly remarkable and beautiful collection! After a so-so Thai massage (see forthcoming blog entry), we quit the city by bus to arrive in Sukhothai about an hour later, where we were met by the pickup van of the guesthouse we had booked, also following the recommendation of the TAT director: we are staying at the Ruean Thai Guesthouse, a place with cozy rooms, a swimming pool, and very friendly staff, for about 10 EUR a night -- the best guesthouse I have been to in three vacations in Southeastasian countries, three thumbs up, I can recommend it to anyone coming to the area! We had just settled and taken a shower when the hotel clerk notified us that the director was waiting downstairs to take us to the "light show". We boarded his van, together with his family and colleagues, and drove about an hour to Srisatchamalai Historical Park, where we arrived just in time to witness an impressive ceremony, part of the New Year celebration: old people were sitting in rows on chairs, and younger folk passed from one to the next, pouring drops of water into their hands as a form of respect to the elderly to help them stay cool in the dreadful heat of the month. Naturally, we lined up and did as the others did -- and found us filmed and greeted by a television crew afterwards for an interview. Not wanting to be a burden to the director and his family, we followed the suggestion to stroll around in the park for about an hour, until we returned to the agreed meeting point. There, we found that mats had been rolled out on the lawn in front of one of the temples, and maybe 200 Thais were sitting and dining. The director invited us to join them, and we enjoyed Thai cuisine until dusk, when everyone got up for the national anthem and the show began. At first, a famous Thai singer (so we were told) performed a couple of folk songs and we learnt that, (to my knowledge) unlike European folk songs, the Thai sing songs telling real events in history. A fashion show of old, traditional Thai clothing followed, and finally, the stage was set for a performance of the history of Sukhothai. People were all over the place, fighting, dancing, or just "ruling" (as the king(s) would do), and a voice recounted the story, which one of the director's daughters translated for Aline, I was busy taking pictures. Fireworks accompanied the scene, along with flying objects consisting of a real flame underneath a balloon made of rice paper. Most flew high and far away, some got stuck in trees and went up in flames. After the show, I had a chance to see some of the costumes and must say that I am deeply impressed, not only by how Thai people used to dress, but also by the love and care the people put into the show to make it as authentic as possible. Interestingly, only one other tourist ("fallang") was at the event, something the tourist director wants to change in the future -- good thing we witnessed the "pure event"... I seem to prefer places not frequented by tourists, and in the Thais seem to be continuously surprised that we are not heading for the beaches in the south following our time in the north. Back at the hotel, we fell into bed, exhausted from the day and the nightswim in the pool. I got up this morning to find my ear clogged with water -- must have been the late swim. The guesthouse owner insisted to take me to a pharmacy to find some eardrops, and I hope this nuisance will go away soon. We rented a motorcycle for the day and headed in direction of the old Sukhothai city, or the Sukhotai History Park, as it is also called. Waiting for our photo chip to be beamed to CD, we made our first encounter with the way young people like to celebrate the New Year (which officially started today): all over the city, people rode around on the back of pickup trucks, emptying buckets of water over other people. We bought ourselves a water gun and plunged in for the fun. It didn't take 30 minutes until we were soaked, but nothing could stop us. The old city is maybe 10 kilometres away, and the drive was the most unforgetable motorcycle ride I'd ever had: all along the sides of the road, people were filling buckets and splashing everything that passed -- being on a motorcycle with merely a water gun, and as "fallang" (foreigners), we were naturally the primary target for just about everyone, so by the time we had reached the city, we had soaked up half an ocean each. We stopped by a group of kids, gave our water gun to the smallest one, bought a new one, and teamed up with them to fight the passing vehicles. Oh what fun! Dripping, we made our way to the park after a while, and strolled around some temples, the market, and many more water fights. Even though the water obscured the heat, we still didn't feel like taking the barrels of water we had collected for a walk and didn't last too long before we were on our way back, destined to stop again with our allies (the kids) to make sure no car and no passenger got by unwashed. The Thai also crumble up chalk, mix it with water, and smear it into each other's face -- you can imagine how we looked like after a few minutes: soggy and chalked. Finally, we made a run for the hotel and got back at about 16:00 o'clock for the first time of feeling "dry" in eight hours. Now, after some time at the pool, we are loathing for dinner but daren't go for the city as we are wearing our last set of clean, dry clothing; I doubt the Thai lay their buckets to rest at seven and call it an evening. Fortunately the hotel offers food too, so we'll likely be boring and stay in. Tomorrow morning is our flight to Chiang Mai for more of the wet fun. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading along.

We've been busy travelling, never spending more than a night in the same place. Leaving Bangkok on the "3rd class" train for Ayuthaya was an experience of its own kind. The platform was full with people waiting for the train to arrive, and when it did, we witnessed something totally unexpected for the Thai: they almost quarelled to get into the train first to catch a seat. Fortunately we got lucky in the otherwise crowded wagons. We stopped frequenly, and a glance out of the window would give you a peek into the lowest end of Thai civilisation: barracks built along the tracks with large numbers of people vegetating along. Inside the train it was hot and sticky, and we were surely happy to disembark in Ayuthaya about an hour later than planned. Ayuthaya was the Siamese royal capital between the 14th and the 18th century (the name derives from Sanskrit and means "undefeatable") and a bunch of temples and ruins, most with strong Khmer influence, survived the various Burmese attacks until today, making the city a nice attraction for those who like "stone piles" (as I've heard them described). We had made arrangements from Bangkok with the Baan Lotus Guesthouse, run by a lovely lady who spoke good English. Apart from the broken light in our room, the setting, the friendliness of our host, and the cleanliness of the rooms were definitely worth the price. After visiting Wat Phra Mahathat, the temple home to a Bhudda's head embedded in twisted roots, we had a guide escort us to a remote Elephant camp to witness the preparations for the upcoming New Year celebration (Songkran) in a week from now -- we are definitely looking forward to that. Later that night, we met some locals at a bar for chatting and went to bed late, thanks to our host handing over the keys and making an exception to the 11pm curfew. We got up to meet the guide from the night before, who took us around three temples before dropping us off at the boat stop for a short cruise around the island (Ayuthaya is encircled by a river). Our train to Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) was scheduled for 12:23, and so we had to forgo most of the temples due to time constraints; Ayuthaya is close enough to Bangkok to come back here again during a future trip. Reaching the station with ample time, we found the (express) train to be full, but did not feel like waiting for the slower train an hour later, so we talked the station ward into getting us on anyway. Interestingly, I think he would have tried his best even if I had not slipped him 100 Baht (2 EUR) under the table. We got on, and even had two seats in an air-conditioned wagon, so the trip was quite relaxing -- to the point that we almost missed our stop. Shortly before reaching Khorat, we rode through a thunderstorm, and there was a light drizzle as we stepped out of the station. The distance from Bangkok showed, the Tuk Tuk drivers (Tuk Tuks are the infamous three-wheeled taxis you find all over Southeast Asia) didn't hassle us, it was in fact not at all easy to find one, and when we did, he did not know where the Tokyo Hotel, our chosen home for the night, was located. With a map in hand, we thus simply started walking, but had to run for shelter at an ice factory when the rain picked up and sent cats and dogs onto the streets that really aren't made to take that much liquid. Eventually, a Tuk Tuk picked us up and got us to the hotel safely, and an hour later, the rain stopped. We did not miss a beat to get outside and ended up at "The Mall", a magnificent American-style "shopping paradise" (as Aline would call it) which clearly showed that shopping is one of the top passtimes for Thais. We ended the evening at Khorat Texas, a very nice bar in the centre of the town, with decent food and live music. As I was rolling a cigarette, a local from the next table curiously came over, and shortly thereafter, the two of us joined the three of them at their table for some cultural exchange in broken English. We picked up quite a few handy Thai expressions but also came to the conclusion that the Thai don't really know how to say things themselves and would often disagree with each other over the endings of words. But as the beer kept flowing, we seemingly got better at Thai intonation, although the language is definitely very hard for Europeans. I could not help but notice though that it seems to be better suited for cell phone conversations in noisy places while one of the three men we met kept chatting away to his wife for an hour while the band was playing in the background. This morning, we weren't motivated to get up before 11, checked out, made travel arrangements for our next destination -- Phimai -- dropped off some laundry, and then headed for the national museum, which we only found through the technique of circling and spiralling inwards. Not much to see otherwise here. The Lonely Planet guide says this city is unexciting, but it grows on you if you spend longer periods of time. Sure, like most cities, I say. As it stands, we have reason enough to abandon the place and spend tonight in Phimai, close to the famous and beautifully restored Khmer temples of the area, so that we can hopefully spend as much time as possible in the temple area before the heat gets unbearable. Nevertheless, speaking of heat, yesterday's rain shower cooled the air by 5 or 10 degrees, and it's very bearable right now. I have to point this out because in general, the month of April is not a month during which to travel Northern Thailand due to the temperatures approaching 40 degrees during the day. I know for sure that next time, I will be looking into clothing made out of fabric better suited to handle large amounts of sweat than cotton. We hope to leave Phimai on a bus to Udon Thani. I expect that shall be the next time I get to write. Thanks for reading along.