4:22 a.m. - Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2003
How Ms Leslie didn't Miss the Festival After all
I thought I missed the new year�s festival (Songkrat). I stayed in my room most of the day, closing my eyes and listening to the screams and music as people everywhere doused each other with water. I later learned that the white powder they also sprinkled and smeared on each others� faces was baby powder; a tradition dating back thousands of� Days?

On Monday, the day after all the fuss, I had arranged to be picked up by Ees and Richard for a day trip to Pattaya. I think I�ve mentioned this. We spent the morning touring �The Sanctuary of Truth�, a privately owned pavilion, still under construction, built entirely, and by entirely, I mean there aren�t even any nails, of teak. Yes� teak. It�s three hundred feet tall and has four wings, each devoted to a major religion. Now, don�t get offended� this is the far east after all, so Christianity isn�t one of the four. The religions depicted in this building are Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese Tao, and another kind of Buddhism, I think. Something they do in Cambodia.

Anyway, every inch of the place, floor to ceiling, is hand carved. Some of the carvings are from other temples and buildings and are ancient. Others are modern. Workmen are still carving in the yard, working on statues, designs and decorations for the building. Did I mention this is all TEAK?

After a personal guided tour, we sat under a shelter and watched an amusing if not fantastic dolphin show, featuring three small native dolphins and a Thai announcer who also happened to be a transsexual woman. We chatted for a few minutes before leaving. I was again admonished to be a fat woman and enjoy it. We hugged and exchanged e-mail addresses, and then whooshed off to our next attraction. We visited a Chinese temple. It was their idea. If I had been asked to go see a Chinese temple, I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep. I�m almost getting used to being wrong. The temple was one of the most beautiful places I�ve ever seen. It was huge, and filled with Chinese statues, stone carvings, unbelievable tall vases, and granite murals, oh man�. I can�t even tell you. I took a lot of pictures though, and I�ll feature some of them here once I get home. I may even include pictures of the first Thai-style toilets I�ve encountered. I�d tell you about that little adventure today, but I�m kinda feeling just now like all I ever write about are food and potty. I need to take a sanity break.

Well, I learned that the Songkrat festival isn�t a one day affair. It goes on for four days. My day trip occurred on day two, when the water works were really just getting wound up good. We drove the sixty kilometers from Bang Saen Beach to Pattaya on the main highway, which was lined with kids, mostly, throwing water at passing cars. That might seem dangerous, but I have to tell you, that little extra danger on these roads passed unnoticed. There were also loads of people siting in, on, and hanging off of pickup trucks and open busses, carrying Huge earthenware vats or plastic drums of water, which they threw, splashed and squirted at the other travelers with unrestrained glee.

We were welcomed at the Sanctuary with a very restrained and polite dowsing of ice cold water down our backs. I was grateful that they showed consideration for my brand new camera. The dolphins, of course, tried to wish us a happy new year in their own distinctive way, but I was way ahead of them, and so missed out on having my person and all important camera doused in salt water.

At the temple, we were again squirted respectfully. It is, after all, rather an honor to be wetted. It�s a good wish for you.

My real introduction, though, didn�t occur until later in the afternoon, as we were going back to my hotel on the beach. By that time, everyone was out. The street leading to my hotel is four lanes. In Thai, that means eight lanes of traffic, and all of the lanes, going in both directions were completely clogged with cars, trucks, busses, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrians, tuk-tuks and Song Taews, all loaded to the absolute limit with people, squirt guns, plastic dishes, bottles and water, water, water.

For several miles and almost two hours, poor Richard crept along in his new pickup truck, while people drenched it with water and smeared baby powder from one end to the other. Every few feet, traffic would stop altogehter, and the people would dismount to dance, laugh, scream and ambush each other with dabs of gloppy powder on their cheeks. Some wore halloween masks. Most did not. All were filled with a happy abandon that left no room at all for unpleasantness of any kind.

I kept my window up. I had to. Everyone did. The water would dry and the powder was easy to clean from the outside of a car but if the inside were to get drenched, there would be no help for it. So people came to the window and squirted and smeared. Seeing that I was katooie, they begged me to roll thew window down just a little bit and then laughed when I refused with a Wai. I would put my cheek against the window and they would smear the window with goop and delight. The goop was theirs, the delight was mine.

Then, shortly before we finally started making the approach to my hotel� Right in the middle of the fray, I realized something.

I�ve been to Mardi Gras. I�ve seen people celebrating in the streets. I�ve seen parades that were meant for children and block parties meant for adults. But never, until now, have I seen a celebration that was so inclusive of people of all ages and backgrounds. Never have I seen so many people getting along, being happy, dancing, laughing� and not drinking a bit of alcohol. That�s what really floored me about this whole affair. No one was mean. No one was sick, There were no fights and incredibly, no accidents. Just happy people with their kids and lovers, wives and husbands, all mixed together in streets that ran with whitened water, wishing nothing for each other except good luck and prosperity.

Geez� it�s all just a huge family!

Oh� and a PS for you.

I did see one unhappy person. It was a Thai police officer, which is normally someone to steer well clear of. These guys can disappear you without much trouble at all. But on this day, it was this officer�s unhappy duty to stand in an intersection and glare as he mostly protected some traffic barriers that had been put up for traffic control. Thai drivers, you see, are not averse in the least to nudging things out of the way if they are between them and wherever it is they wish to go. Unless, of course, there is a Thai policeman in sight. This one did his duty. He did it in what used to be a crisp brown uniform and a pair of dark aviator glasses. Used to be. But when I spied him, he was soaking wet and covered in white glop. He was not a happy policeman and knowing that his buddies had no doubt once again hidden their cars and retired to the deserted hotel restaurant didn�t make him any happier, I�m sure.

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