It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Lately I've been struggling to get out of bed to get to school and I take an extra deep breath before I walk into each classroom to face a room full of rowdy students. I find myself daydreaming for the summer days when I was globetrotting across Asia and exploring new places. Thank goodness this weekend we have our first break in the semester - a four day weekend - holler! Nell and I are off to the island of Koh Mak, a very small island in the Trat province near Koh Chang. If the Google Images of the island weren't enough to convince me, I discovered that every beach bungalow for rent seems to feature its own hammock outside - sign me up!

To reminisce a bit on my summer of freedom, I put together a video of all of my trips in the Tour de Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam - it's all coming back to me now! Check it out below...

Summer Vacation, Asia Style

Starring: Nell Riccio, Meghan Hart, Emily Rall, Amy Wallace, and heaps of cool locals. 

Song: "Go Do" by Jonsi

Summer Vacation: Asia Style from Sarah Rall on Vimeo.

Rules for "playing" Songkran in Thailand:

Songkran, or Thailand's New Year celebration, happens every year on April 13-15.  When I visited Thailand in 2004 with my brothers we were unaware of this holiday and all that it entailed, so this time I made sure I was armed and ready.

These days, Songkran is pretty much one giant water fight for locals and farang alike, but it hasn't always been this wild. For some historical context, I'll hand it over to my good friend Wikipedia: "The throwing of water originated as 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." Today, it's pretty much grab a water- gun/hose/bucket/chunk of ice and throw it on anyone who may decide to cross your path. Thais refer to the celebration as "playing Songkran" (it's pretty obvious why) and although it's a nationwide celebration, the real place to party is up north in Chiang Mai where people play Songkran for a whopping 6 days.

So what are the rules for playing Songkran? In my humble opinion...

• Be prepared. If you go outside, you will get wet. Mai pen rai, don't get mad, get even. Be ready with a waterproof bag to protect your money/phone/camera, and don't wear anything that can't handle a little, ok a lot, of water.
• Be armed. Don't expect people to be nice to you because you are unarmed. You're going to need a weapon. Emily, Amy and I pretty much bought the first set of water-guns we laid eyes on when we got off the plane, but they were not of high quality and only lasted about 25 minutes before they started to leak more water than they could spray.  My next weapon of choice? A bucket.  The perfect tool for grabbing some of the muddy canal water and tossing it to the crowd. 
• Be creative. The party pretty much stops at night, but you can never be too sure when you round a corner that there won't be someone waiting to douse you with water.  The last night of Songkran, the party was still raging when we decided to head out to dinner so we made some mad dashes across streets, down alleyways, and entered a restaurant from the back entrance crossing an abandoned parking lot in order to avoid getting wet. 
• Have fun.  Songkran is a celebration unlike anything I've ever participated in, in America or any other country I've traveled to.  If you can't have fun in a giant water fight when it's 100 degrees outside, we're probably not meant to be friends.  Thai people know how to have a good time, and taking part in this celebration is seriously one of my favorite experiences in my 25 years on Earth.  Being able to take part in this nationwide party, and watching Thai people turn an entire city into their personal playground, is a beautiful thing.  Sanuk mak mak! 

Now for some visuals:

THAIsland Time!

I made it home from the epic adventures with Megh and Nell on a Tuesday and had just enough time to do some laundry and repack my backpack before heading into Bangkok to pick up my sister Emily on Thursday.  We met up with Emily's college roommate Amy and after spending Friday checking out Bangkok we hopped on an overnight bus to Khao Lak, about 100Ks north of Phuket and known for its amazing scuba diving sites. We arrived to Khao Lak at 7am and Emily and Amy immediately took off for scuba diving while I parked myself at the beach for the day.

The next day I opted to join Emily and Amy out in the Similan Islands - about a 2 hour speedboat ride from Khao Lak. There was only one other person snorkeling with me so it kind of felt like I was on my own in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fish, of course.  At one point I nearly had a panic attack when my fellow snorkeler grabbed me with a nervous look and started pointing at something right next to me, but I was relieved when I turned just in time to see not a shark, but a large sea turtle swim right past me.  It was quite a beautiful sight and I was tempted to grab on and go for a ride but still also recovering from my momentary freak out, so I snapped a pic with my underwater camera and found my way back to the boat.  I love snorkeling, but there's no way I'll ever try scuba diving, I tend to get way too scared by the unfamiliar animals swimming with me.

Our last day in Khao Lak we decided to do a tour of Khao Sok National Park, a gorgeous rainforest full of limestone mountains and one of the world's largest flowers (which was not in bloom, unfortunately!)We rode some elephants, took a canoe ride, tried our skills at a rope swing into the river, and stopped at a viewpoint for some great scenic shots.

After grabbing some banana shakes the next morning we made our way to Ko Phi Phi for an experience that is thus far one of my favorites in Thailand.  I had some friends a few months back who found out about the opportunity to camp overnight on Maya Bay, one of Thailand's most famous beaches due to its appearance in the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio.  If you head to Maya Bay during the day, and I had been there twice before, you will find the beach teeming with tourists and longtail boats, so as soon as I found out about the chance to have the beach to yourself at night, I was all in.  We started off the trip with some snorkeling stops on our way to Maya Bay from Ko Phi Phi and once we arrived we waved good-bye to the tourists and waited until the last longtail boat left before the party got started.  Since it is Thailand, there were of course buckets to be served and fire shows to be seen, and as soon as the clock struck midnight Songkran, or Thai New Year, had officially begun so we were immediately involved in a full scale water war.  Luckily our fellow campers - there were only 25 of us - were good people, so we had a really fun time.  We went to sleep on straw mats in the sand watching for shooting stars (I saw 3!) and trying to remember the names of various constellations.  Maya Bay Camping is definitely the way to experience Maya Bay away from all the crowds, and easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

When we made it back to Phi Phi the next day, Songkran revelry was in full effect and we were eager to catch our plane up to Chiang Mai to join in the party...