Songkran - or Why Every Holiday in Thailand is More Fun

Pai and Songkran



Alrighty... pickingup where I left off in my travels. I arrived back in Thailand on the morning of April 5. My bus ride back to Phra Pradaeng took longer than my flight from Ho Chi Minh City. Later that day, I met up with my teacher friend Laura. The plan was to head up north in a couple days for Songkran, the Thai new year. For those of you who don’t know, Songkran is classically celebrated by gently pouring water on your elders as a way to cleanse then for the new year. However, it  has basically turned into a massive, country-wide water fight.

Laura and I had each just gotten back from long stints of travelling, so were happy to spend a couple days in our apartments. That night, we met a couple of our teacher friends at a local restaurant/bar, Ta Chang. The next few days, we relaxed and hung out with our friends in the neighbourhood. Saturday evening, we went to a barbeque at our friend Deaw’s house – always a fun time. We decided our first stop up north should be the small town of Pai.

Laura left for Pai on Monday, where she was going to meet up with our fellow teacher, Anna. I had to wait until Tuesday to leave as I needed to get a re-entry permit and the office was closed on Monday. Fun times with Immigration... So Tuesday night, I caught my overnight bus to Chiang Mai. As usual, the ride was fairly uneventful and I was able to sleep for most of the ride. Once I arrived in Chiang Mai, I caught a minivan to Pai. The drive to Pai was moderately insane: it was an incredibly twisty and steep road through the mountains. As usual, our driver attacked the road, driving as fast as he possibly could. It was a beautiful ride, but I did feel queasy at some points. I managed to doze off for a while but was jolted awake by a huge “WHAM!” sound. My first thought was we had hit something, but I then realised the van was all wet. A group of people starting the Songkran celebrations early had hurled a bucket of water on the van.

I arrived in Pai around 11 am and went to meet Laura and Anna – who were just waking up. Pai is pretty much a tourist town – every shop and restaurant caters towards tourists. It was really cute and had some awesome food, but not the place to go if you are looking for the authentic experience. Anyway, we had a very tasty breakfast/lunch, then decided to spend the afternoon in the town’s pool. Which is also a bar. We had to walk maybe 10 minutes outside town to get there, but the scenery was lovely. We had a very enjoyable afternoon sitting around, swimming, drinking beer and chatting to other travellers. In the evening, we met up with some people we had met and continued to explore the town.

 

The next day was basically the same as the previous one... Delicious food and lazing around the pool. However, in the evening we went to this HUGE man-powered ferris wheel thing. Basically you could sit on these 4 seats and with enough force, you could turn the wheel around. It was a bit ridiculous. That evening we also bought our water guns in preparation for the official start of Songkran in a few days.

On the 12^th, we departed Pai. They were already in Songkran mode. Our breakfast consisted of people spraying us and us spraying people as they walked by. There was a temple next door from where we were eating and several young novices were trying to get us to fight with them. Which we did. This degenerated into a full water fight between us and the novices. It was slightly ridiculous. I kept wondering if they were allowed to be doing this... Around 11, we caught our mini-bus back to Chiang Mai. On the way, we were pelted by water several times.

We arrived in Chiang Mai in the afternoon. Chiang Mai is supposed to the the best place to celebrate Songkran in Thailand. The old city is encircled by an old moat, and people simply fish for water in it with buckets with string tried to the handle. We had to take a sawng-tao to our hotel and several people threw their buckets of water into the open back of the truck. Songkran had begun!

Once we arrived at our hotel, we loaded our water guns and went wandering/walked around spraying people and being sprayed. Songkran is difficult to describe... Basically everyone just walks around and sprays people. You are a fair target if you venture outside. And everyone is just so happy. It’s really quite amazing. Also, if you are a foreigner, Thai people think it’s a lot of fun to dump water on you or smear your face with powder. They also find it hilarious to spray your boob area. I also took a couple bucket shots to the crotchal region. People drink and party constantly. It’s basically 3 days of insanity.

On the 13^th, we started our day with Mexican food – delicious! Then wandered up and down the streets spraying people. To refill your guns, there are people who set up with buckets along the road – many own the businesses behind them and are more than happy to let you refill your tank. The roads were PACKED with people – and there were a couple large party booths set up near the central gate. Including one that sprayed you with blinding, suffocating soap foam. In the late afternoon, we met up with some other teacher friends of ours and spent a few hours hanging out at a bar. They had 2 barrels of water just outside, so it was the perfect spot. After dinner, we went to the main bar area and hung out. Gooood times.

The next two days were basically the same as the first. However my water gun broke, so I decided to go for a bucket this time. Best decision of my life! There’s nothing better than throwing a bucket-full of water in someone’s face, or over-turning the bucket over their head!

Vietnam - Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City

Hue/Hoi An and HCMC

I got back to Hanoi early in the morning on April 1. I had booked a bus ticket to a town called Hoi An that evening, so I relaxed in Hanoi for the day. I finished my souvenir shopping in the morning, and went for lunch with Anna in the afternoon. It was a cold, drizzly day, so I spent a fair amount of time inside reading my book. The weather in Northern Vietnam was quite pleasant most of the time. During the day, it normally got up to about 25 degrees and was less humid than Bangkok for sure. I was actually COLD in Sapa... for the first time in about 5 months!

 

I caught the bus to Hoi An around 7pm – it was one of the “sleeper buses” that I have seen only in Vietnam really. Basically instead of seats, there small individual beds in 3 columns down the bus. You could almost lie completely flat, so it was pretty comfortable. The bus ride was pretty uneventful... until we were dropped off in Hue, a town a few hours from Hoi An. We were told we had to wait FOUR HOURS until the next bus to Hoi An. Was not pleased, because I hadn’t given myself much time in the town. To pass the time, two girls and I decided to walk around. Hue turned out to be a pretty neat spot to pass a few hours: we walked over to the old town citadel and explored that. The walk along the river was lovely and very green. Much better than being stuck in a bus station.



We eventually arrived in Hoi An at around 5pm – I had been in transit for 22 hours, so was not a happy camper at this point. The two girls I walked around with in hue, Michaela and Felicity, and I decided to share a room. Our hotel had a pool, so the first thing I did was go for a swim. Was very nice after a loooong sweaty and sticky bus ride. In the evening we walked to the town centre, had dinner and wandered around. Hoi An is a very quaint little town – the town centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings were very old and small. There was also a neat market selling thousands of lanterns. Hoi An is also famous for its tailors, and there were dozens of shops that made dresses, suits, jackets, shirts, you name it...

The next day, I decided to rent a bicycle in order to make the most of the time I had – was flying from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) at 6, and needed to leave around 3pm. First, I rode through the rice fields just outside the town. Hoi An is in central Vietnam and is A LOT warmer than up north. The rice growing was much more mater, so the fields were vast expanses of green. In one of the rice fields, I stopped to visit an ancient Japanese tomb. From there, I rode out to the beach (on the ocean). The beach was deserted (it was still quite early). I’m not a huge fan of beaches so I walked along the shore for a bit and stood with my feet in the water...



In the afternoon, I rode around the town itself. I didn’t really have any particular things I wanted to see – I was just wandering on bicycle. I did go see the Japenese Covered Bridge, one of the more famous sites in Hoi An. Other than that, I rode around pretty aimlessly. I did stop for a 3000 Dong beer for lunch – about 15 cents. It was lovely riding around the buildings, through the alleys and along the river.



In the afternoon, I left to catch my flight from the airport in Da Nang, about an hour away. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I didn’t arrive in HCMC until about 10pm. Also, I should mention that the reason I flew was it costs the same as the train and only takes an hour. Sweet. Once I arrived, I took a taxi to my hostel, had some disappointing Indian food, and went to bed.

The next day, which is April 4 by this point, I just decided to wander around HCMC. There were a couple museums I wanted to check out, and a few sites I wanted to see. HCMC has a much more of a big city feel to it: there are more (new) skyscrapers, larger roads, and THOUSANDS of motorcycles. I stopped for breakfast at a local pho place and had some of the best pho of my trip (noodle soup). However, I had crushed up a chili pepper to put in my soup, then made the mistake of rubbing my face. My skin felt like it was on fire for a good 20 minutes. Fun times!



My first stop was the large indoor market, whose name I can’t remember. Was similar to all the other markets I’ve seen – many souvenir shops, silk shops, knock-off item shops, and anything shops. Next, I went to the Reunification Palace – the former residence of the president of South Vietnam. Once the North enveloped the South, the building was transformed into a museum. They offer free tours in English at the palace, which was great. I took one of these tours with a family from Canada and a solo Australian. Our guide spoke very good English, and showed us around all the different rooms. My favourite part was going down to the basement/bunker. Here we found the President’s “War Room” with many old maps, radios and other machinery. It felt a little bit like something out of a movie. The walls were made out of thick concrete – to protect against bomb explosions. After the tour, I explored the grounds. The two tanks used by the North Vietnamese Army to break down the gates of the palace are displayed proudly.



After that, I wandered for quite some time – visiting exciting things like the post-office and a coffee shop. I also explored the Notre Dame Cathedral: a remnant from the French colonial period. I eventually made my war over to the War Remnants Museum, with artefacts from the Vietnam War. As usual, the facts and information was very one sided, focusing on the atrocities committed by the American “Imperialists”. But it was still informative and interesting. There were large displays about the use of Agent Orange, POW conditions, photography, and whatnot. Many of the displays were quite disturbing and graphic – including a deformed fetus due to Agent Orange contamination.

 

 

After the museum, I walked back to my hostel. I was exhausted at this point as I had been walking around since about 8:00am. I had dinner in the main tourist area in HCMC, which is similar to Khao San albeit a little less insane. I then went to my hostel with the intention to relax. However, in my dorm I started talking with a girl from Alberta and she invited me to dinner with her and some people she had met. I figured that was a better way to spend my last night in Vietnam, so I joined them. We were an American, a Brit, a Brazilian, and us 2 Canadians. We wandered around for a while looking for food before settling on a street food stall. I didn’t order anything but still ended up eating about half on the Brazilian guy’s dish, as it was too spicy for him! Win. After, we went for smoothies. Around 10:00pm, I went back to the hostel as my flight back to Bangkok was leaving early the next morning.

In the morning, I shared a cab to the airport with a British guy also staying at my hostel. The flight back to Bangkok took a little over an hour... about the same amount of time it took me to take the bus from Don Muang Airport to my apartment! And so ends my travels in Vietnam. It was a lovely place to visit, but I was ready to leave when I did.

 

Traveling!!!! Vietnam: Ba Be and Sapa

Ba Be and Sapa March 27-April 1

Ba Be:

In Vietnam, most backpackers follow the exact same route (North to South or vice-sersa). Starting in the North: Hanoi – Ha Long Bay – Sapa – Hue and/or Hoi An –Nha Trang – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and the Mekong Delta tour from HCMC. I was planning to go to most of these places, but I decided I wanted to go somewhere off the beaten track. So I chose Ba Be National Park – a park in Northern Vietnam, not far from the Chinese border. I found a tour that went up that way, and decided to go for it.

I was picked up in the morning of the 27^th by our tour guide and owner of the company, Linh. We gathered the rest of the group and headed north. There was an Australian couple, a British couple living in Cyprus, and a Swiss woman. The drive north was an experience on its own. Vietnam is much less developed than Thailand and you definitely notice a difference once you leave the cities. I saw several horse drawn carts on the way. We made a couple stops – a temple on a mountain side, ruins that used to be a prison, and lunch. For lunch, we stopped in a local restaurant – not visited by many foreign tourists. I had the best meal of my time in Vietnam there: a beef stir fry on rice noodles with pepper, garlic, tomatoes, onions and other delicious things. It was SO GOOD. Mmmm

 Propaganda poster

 Temple we visited

 

 

 

 

The drive took about 6 hours, so we arrived at Ba Be town in the afternoon. We were staying in Linh’s house/homestay. The entire town had maybe 20 little houses in it and is right on the shore of the massive Ba Be Lake. It was lovely – quiet and picturesque. We wandered around the town and up the road before dinner. Saw the classic “pig tied to the back of a motorcycle”, as well as the local school. The lake has various small towns scattered around, and many of the children go to this school. Most people are part of the Tay ethnic group.

 

 





Dinner was cooked by Linh’s wife and mother – and it was also delicious. We also sample the local speciality alcohol, corn wine. It takes more like whiskey, and it was VILE. I was chasing my shots with beer. Shudder...

The next day, Linh took us on a boat tour of the river. Our first stop was a small hike to a lookout tower. Linh warned us that there were many poisonous snakes in the area, especially a small green one that could kill you in a matter of minutes. While we were walking, he picked up a large walking stick, and when we asked what it was for, he simply responded, “Snakes”. Only a little terrifying haha. After the look out, we visisted another village farther down the lake. This was also a Tay village, and was the location of many rice farms. It was gorgeous walking though the rice paddies. A couple kids ran up to us, and wanted their pictures taken. Eeeee

 

 

 

 



 

The next place we stopped was this really cool cave. Basically, a river had worked its way through a mountain, so the cave was more like a massive tunnel. It was pretty spectacular. Like most of South East Asia, much of the rock is limestone, making for some pretty neat peaks, cliffs, and caves. After the cave, we had lunch in another small town. Next, we visited a neat waterfall. By this time, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we went back to our village. Some of us went out in the boat again to go for a swim. Was lovely and refreshing – not too cold either! Once again, we had dinner made by Linh’s family. And more corn wine. Made for a good night.



 



On the 28^th, we drove back to Hanoi. On our way, we stopped in a local market in one of the bigger towns in the park. It was neat to walk around and see some people in traditional costumes. We drove on a gorgeous road through mountains and rice fields. About an hour away from Hanoi, we stopped in the Ethnic Groups Museum. Was nice enough, but I was pretty tired at this point. I was also anxious to get back to Hanoi, as I was catching the night train to Sapa. The roads in Vietnam are quite slow especially in the north. There aren’t any real highways, and most roads go through towns and cities. Also, the roads in the mountains are windy and not the greatest. So it takes forever to get places. But we made it back to Hanoi on time and I was able to catch my train.



Sapa:

Sapa is another town in Vietnam, but more North-West from Hanoi than Ba Be (which is pretty much due North). Sapa is in the area of the country with the most and highest mountains, and also boasts rice fields and small ethnic minority towns. The best way to get there is the overnight sleeper train, which is what I took. It was my first time on an actual sleeper train, with beds and whatnot. The ride was quite comfortable, except the train kept rocking back and forth. At one point, we stopped so suddenly, I was sure we hit something. But we just kept going. Needless to say, I didn’t get the greatest sleep. 

The train takes you as far as a town called Lao Cai, where you take a 45 minute mini-van ride to Sapa. This was another gorgeous road, but the weather at the time was quite cloudy. It was still quite early when I arrived in Sapa, and I had to wait for the other people from the tour to arrive. So I wandered around the town a little. At this point, was in the middle of a cloud. I went to the market at the town centre, where many ladies from the ethnic minority villages were selling bracelets, purses, jewelry and other bits. The one annoying thing about Sapa is these women will literally follow you around, trying to get you to buy from them. When we left our hotel for our hike, there were more of these ladies following us than people in the tour group!

That day, the plan was to walk through the valleys to the town our home-stay was located in. For a while, we were talking through clouds. But after an hour or so, it cleared up and we got lovely views of the ride paddies built into the sides of the mountains, and the mountains themselves. It was spectacular. I’ll just let my pictures do the talking.

 

 

 



We arrived at the home-stay late in the afternoon. We then sat outside, watched water buffalo wander by, and the occasional cock-fight. There were also these ADORABLE puppies – it was unreal how cute they were. A few of us helped prepare dinner for a little while, which was interesting. Dinner was very tasty, and in the evening, we sat around and drank beer – there was nothing else to do!

 

 

 



The next day, we were supposed to hike back to town. Unfortunately, when we got up it was quite rainy and misty. I was still having fun but I’m used to hiking in all conditions. Some of the people in the group were not too impressed – also because the trail was very muddy and slippery. At a few points, there were some very steep descents. Many people slipped and slid down parts on their butts or fronts. I thought it was fun and an adventure... others did not. Around 12:00 pm, we stopped for lunch. The weather was still rainy and cold at this point, so our guide decided to have a van come pick us up. Unfortunately the soonest the van could arrive was in a couple hours. So we sat around the restaurant and waited. There was a bulldozer trying to dig a large rock out of where they wanted to build a road, so that kept us entertained. Many of the villagers were also watching. Fun times. 

 



We were eventually picked up, and taken back to a hotel in Sapa. There we ate dinner, and were then taken to the train station to go back to Hanoi. All in all, Sapa was a lovely place. Although the people following you around can get annoying, you just have to try to not let it bother you. The scenery and mountains were wonderful enough that you can forget about these small annoyances. 

Next post: Hoi An and HCMC