The New Adventures of Amy and Tom

Happy early New Year!!! Song Kran actually started two days early for me as I was with the House of Hope Kids who, being like children everywhere else I can think of, couldn't wait to start the fun.

Official start of the New Year is actuallyThursday the 13th (tomorrow to us). On Monday afternoon Na came to collect Ya and I from the pickup truck stop closest to House of Hope and insisted I sit up in the cab of what was my third pickup truck ride of the day. I said that I could sit in the back, but they were very stern (okay, not really, they are still Thai) I obliged and found out a kilometer or so down the road that local children had taken to the canals with their buckets to douse passing motorists.

The kids at House of Hope were also busy filling water balloons for that afternoon's game of "pass the water balloon over your head until Na breaks it with her enormous fingernails"

As Na drove Ya and I back to the pickup truck stop, the children continued to throw water balloons at anything that moved along the side of the dirt roads.

Taking a tuk-tuk from the Day Market where Ya and I parted, I saw a little activity around the moat and witnessed one drive-by splashing of a motorbike passenger.

By Tuesday (reminder: Song Kran starts on Thursday!) the children at House of Hope were in full swing of preparations. They did manage to sit through my lesson with little distraction from Ae and Na filling buckets and balloons with water in the background.

After my lesson, though, there was no pretending that we were going to wait for the official start of the New Year. Smaller buckets dipping into the larger resevoirs served as the main tool of the trade. They dumped them from the windows of the second floor, they climbed trees, they got a running start and simply threw the water from ground level. Everyone was soaked (except me) in very short order.

Iinitial splashing taken care of, they quickly refilled the large buckets and loaded them into the back of Na's pickup. I counted three 30 gallon buckets to use as resevoirs, plus whatever they could carry in water balloons, smaller buckets, used water bottles with the tops cut off, and any other thing they could get their hands on.

We drove around the very small town for almost an hour simply throwing water in every direction, and being ambushed by those hiding along the side of the road.

Ya and I got back into our pickup truck headed back to town and got splashed only a few times through the windows of the bed.

Since Tom and I are celebrating with Kids Ark on Thursday, Ya and I did some shopping for the occasion at the Day market before heading back to the office. We will be armed with one 40 gallon tub, two small buckets, three small water pistols and one very large water shot gun (Ya insisted Khun Tom needed a bigger gun than the rest of us)

On my way back to our guesthouse via tuk-tuk, I was splashed rather well from the corner at Wat Prah Singh, however didn't see the culprit or how it was acomplished.

Tom was significantly disapointed that he hadn't seen any action yet, so I suggested and early dinner and then to head down to the moat.

Here are some of the pictures we got from Tom's first Song Kran action which occured two days before the official start of the celebration.

This fellow got me pretty well about two seconds after Tom snapped the shot. Notice the large blue tub in the back of the truck.

Here's how to gather water: Either dunk your bucket in the moat, or use one of the spigots the city installed specifically for this purpose.

Remember, this is a full two days early!

We got good and soaked and even picked up two little guns to fight back with (the big ones are at Kids Ark Office). We then headed to The Underground (expat teachers' bar) to dry out a little before calling it a night.

As I write this from an internet cafe a good 5 blocks from the moat at the East Gate where most of the activity is going on, there are two small children sprinkling the already soaked passers by with even more water.

We'll be leaving the camera at the guesthouse for the duration, So enjoy the pictures we have and Happy New Year!

We haven't seen any blogs from Emilio lately. What's up?
Your postings are amazing!