Songkran

Nous sommes de retour du Paradis, un peu plus bruns (et rouges!) que quand nous sommes partis. Nous avons fait du "snorkeling" et j'ai decouvert tout un autre monde sous la mer! Ca me donne vraiment envie de prendre des cours de plongee sous-marine, pour une autre fois.
Et maintenant, on se mouille tout autrement que dans la mer. C'est le Songkran, la nouvelle annee Thai (eh oui, notre troisieme nouvel an en quatre mois!) et la tradition veut que les ennuis et les mauvaises actions de l'annee passee soient laves par de l'eau qu'on se verse les uns sur les autres. Sauf que cette jolie tradition a degenere en un gros "water-fight" auquel s'ajoute parfois de la farine qui salit tout. Je n'ai rien contre me faire arroser, mais je ne veux pas me salir, alors on se cache un petit peu.

We went to Wat Po this morning, to see the famous reclining Buddha once again. This time, the Wat was all decorated and filled with people who were there to bathe the buddha images. And Nature wanted to join in the fun: a huge thunderstorm broke loose, washing the whole city clean for the new year. It was pretty impressive.
While hiding out from the waterguns, we had a chat with a British man who's been teaching here for a few years and who lived in Japan before that. He had many interesting stories about Thailand to tell, having lived as a monk for six months and having seen the darker side of the monkhood. He doesn't like Thailand very much, so I didn't want to give his stories too much credit, but he did have some very interesting things to say. You meet so many interesting people when you travel!