Songkran: the premonsoon season monsoon

I arrived in Chiang Mai on April 12th, the first day of the Thai new year.  I mentioned in a previous post that to celebrate the new year Thai people splash water on each other to wash away the bad from last year and get a fresh start in the new year.  The festival lasts three days, but the first day is the biggest.  On the first day the statues of Buddha are brought out from the temples and paraded through town where everyone throws water on them, the water is collected beneath the statues and thown back on the crowd as blessed water.  That is the main action of the traditional festival, besides that it is traditionally a family event when people come home to be with family, a lot like we do at Christmas.  But that has nothing to do with Songkran in Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai has the largest Songkran festival in Thailand and it amounts to a three day long, city wide water fight.  People pile into the backs of pickup trucks with big garbage cans full of water and race through town dumping buckets of water on everyone they can.  At the same time people sit out in front of their houses with hoses spraying all the passers by.  Old town is where it gets really crazy, the streets are packed with people and cars splashing each other while stores and restraunts blast music into the street.  There are water vending machines where for 1 Baht (about 3 cents) where you can fill up your bucket, or you just fill it up in one of the canals.  This time of year is perfect for Songkran since it is right at the end of the dry season.  Unlike in North America winters in Thailand are cooler and dry while summers are hot and wet.  Right now it is in between the dry and wet season, so it is hot like summer but still really dry (so far it has been near 100 degrees every day). Luckily if your on the street you can't go more than 5 minutes without getting a face full of water so at least as we're walking around things aren't too bad.  Especially on the first day we got here it seemed like the monsoon season had already started with the amount of water falling all around me.  What ever astronomical reason there is for Songkran happening right now i think really it is also an excuse for people to get time off work and play in the water.  Yesterday was the last day of Songkran so things should calm down now. 
Despite all this talk of parties there has also been schooling.  We've gone on two day hikes now, one by a local resevoir and one in nearby Doi Suthep national park.  in those two areas we got introduced to the two main types of forests around here dry, fire prone, desciduous woodlands at the lower elavations (below 100 meters) and fire resistant evergreen forests at higher elavations (not pine forests like our evergreens but broadleafed evergreens mixed with a few pines). Today we will be going to see an organic farmer from Chicago and learn about sustainable farming in tropic regions.  Tomorrow we will be heading up into the mountains for a week long excursion where hopefully it will be a little cooler, though Thailand just doesn't get all that high so it won't be too much cooler. I'm really looking forward to this, apparently we will be hiking through some Jungle areas, and get to explore a number of limestone cave, as well as doing homestays in a couple indigenous villages.  Thai forests here i come.        

Hold on tight boys and girls cause here we goooo!!!

       Well here we go, less than 24 hours till I'm in the air on my way to Thailand.  The last week has been pretty exciting/stressful getting everything ready, trying to imaging what i might need for any number of situations that i may encounter and at the same time keep my pack light and make sure everything fits.  I think i've got it all now, hopefully i haven't brought too much stuff and anything i didn't bring i can get for cheap once i'm there.  

       A lot of people have asked me what exactly i'll be doing and where will i be going.  To a lot of those questions i have to answer "i don't know", the program hasn't given us a lot of details about what and where and i think that is because they don't know for sure yet either.  It sounds like there are a number of possible plans that we may follow and the exact specifics all depends on weather, road conditions, and the group.  I will, however, try to give the best description of the trip as i can so you all know generally what i'm getting into.  On April 13th we'll arrive in Chiang Mai, Thailand in the northwest of the country.  We'll be getting there just in time for Songkran, the Thai new year, also known as the water splashing festival.  During April 12th thru 14th people splash water on each other to symbolize the washing away of anything bad from last year.  This seems like an auspicious start to the trip, beginning a new adventure refreshed and renewed, ready to take on what lies ahead.  Plus Chiang Mai is going to be HOT so the occasional splash of water should be welcome.  After Songkran we will head into the nearby Doi Suthep National Park where we spend a number of days in the northern mountains in the Pangmapha district.

       On April 25 we leave Thailand and fly to Kunming, China in the Yunnan Province.  Yunnan is supposed to be the most biologically and culturally diverse region in all of China.  We will spend a few days in Kunming exploring the city, learning about the culture and urban ecology of a modern Chinese city.  At the same time we will have crash courses in Chinese, lecture presentations, and numerous excursions around the city.  After we leave Kunming we will be moving through various mountain regions working our way northwest towards the Tibetan Plateau.  The areas we will visit include Jianchuan, Lao Jun Shan, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge (I've seen pictures of this gorge online, it is absolutely beautiful), Haba Shan, and Xianggelila.  They haven't been specific about what we will be doing, but they say it includes assessing forest condition and forest plant species richness.  During our backcountry excursions we will both camp and stay in lodges depending on what is available.
       After all that its back to Bangkok for a day and then back state side (with a short 10 hour layover in Taipei first).  I'll landing at SFO sometime in the morning on June 1st most likely ready for a much needed nap.   

       

       I really don't know what to expect on this trip, I have so little experience with anything like this that i can't even imagine what it is going to be like.   I suppose that is for the best, rather than going with lot of preconceived notions about what it will be like i can just accept what comes at me at face value.  I'm sure what ever i encounter it will be amazing. From what i've read this part of the world holds incredible natural beauty, and a wide variety of vibrant, colorful cultures.  Also since the communists have taken over the party has suppressed most minority cultures, fearing they would lead to disunity or separatist movements.  However, in the last decade or so this has changed, the party now supports the development of "authentic cultures" meaning more traditional, indigenous groups.  This has been somewhat controversial, some see this as a good thing, promoting cultural diversity, others see it as a government attempt to enhance the tourism appeal of certain regions, and take control over minority groups such as religious and ethnic organizations by making them government sanctioned and sponsored.  I'm really excited to see how this controversy is playing out, and see how it is affecting average villagers.  Yunnan has apparently been fairly independent throughout it's history, but now as China expands it is becoming increasingly the focus of development efforts in order to tap natural resources and open new markets, I can't wait to see both the good and the bad of what seems to me (from what i have read about the area) to be fast track globalization/modernization.  

OH Man!! Rereading that last paragraph it sounds so theoretical, like it was a case study taken from a text book.  NO. I can't wait to see people whose lives are different to mine, to live in a culture different from mine, and to see plants and animals different from what i have ever encountered simply because they are different.  Really i'm going in search of something NEW.  I'm looking to see something new so that when i come back i can see familiar things in a new way.  In any case i'm ready to throw myself in head first, so in the immortal words of peter pan, "hold on tight boys and girls cause here we go!"