Songkran - the best new year i have ever had in Asia. [christmas in philippines was ****. sorry to say. no mince pies, no christmas dinner, no christmas pudding, no christmas crackers. just felt like any other day
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so songkran, its one big water fight for 5 days, with people getting trigger happy 2 days before and after the event. if you're in bangkok, this festival would last a day. if in the sticks, it lasted 8 days.
the last day, the traffic was moving, but at snails pace, a good way to get drenched with ice cold water while stuck in traffic
beer, music, dancing in the stret, knowing full well tomorrow the festival is over till next year
there is rather a disturbing story to these pictures, one that i had the please to expericance
left side is Thailand, till the line of trees which is [Burma] Mynamar. right side of river, [Burma] Mynamar
this little mishap happened 22/4/07 when i was in Maesai. i looked in LP and decided that the nicest place to stay would be in the maesai guest house, with nice views to burma, just 50 foot away [closer in some places] so close, you can almost touch it. as i like walking, and wandering places, not touristy areas etc, i remember my book said there are some intresting walking trails behind maesai guest house. so off i trot, walk the path out of the guesthouse, and chipped right. didnt think of anything when i saw the thai ranger army guardhouse. they never looked up. one was reading, the other cooking on a stove. i walked over to the fence, to have a gander at burma on the other side of the water. then i carried walking along the well walked path. some burmese people [which i noticed were burmese cos of the face powder on their cheeks.
hello, where are you going they said
min go la ba. [hello] for a walk i said. i carried on, through the barbed waire fence, again, never took any attention. i noticed that the gate had folded back, and grass and weeds were growing through, besides the path was well worn after all. 2 k's down the track, i saw a bridge in the distance from the burma side to the 'thai' side. i wondered why so. even more so when i saw burmese lettering on the top of the iron poles over the bridge.
a man naked, apart from camaflarged shorts said hello and come here, sit down. i said hi,, but no thanks. i just would like some water [Yei] which i found in the icebox. the shop was small with the normal sort of nicnacks you get in any shop in the middle of no where. i noticed the bottle again had burmese lettering, so i asked the question i was dreading. with a finger pointing to the earth, i asked Burma???
yes he said. me eyes widened, to which he saw, and said GO! GO!, and did the moving motion with his hands. i gave him 20 baht for the water, not bothering to ask for 15 bhat back. i just wanted to get back the way i came. how can you look carm, when you know you are in serious shtoom?
i dont know why, but the thai army rangers still never looked up, although there were 5 now, and one was still reading a book. i was gone for 30 or 40 mins, and it was about 4.30 pm when i got back to the rangers. they cant be idiots. there is no where else i could of gone in 30 mins apart from taking an illigeal walk to burma.
i'm very luckly i didnt get caught, mainly from the burmese, as when i was in burma in next day , i took the road parallel to thailand to the end of the village checkpoint, near the bridge, and i noticed that it had a a few huts, some depressed junta with guns and didnt look friendly. beyond that, was the bridge. i can quite thankfully say i was very lucky
that road with Maesai guesthouse ends right there. after that its burma. maybe i should of paid more attention. i thought if it was no entry, at least i would be told off by the rangers, or said that, a notice at the barbed fence to warn this is now burma beyond that point. i jus assumed that burma would be on the other side of the water all along [not really paying much attention to the map of chiang rai province, did i notice maesai GH is on the edge of the 'top Northern most edge of thailand'
and here's is the barbed wire fence to separate Burma and Thailand
someone likes english football
so this is what i thought was thailand and burma across the water. oh how wrong i was.
this is the oldest Laos temple in Thailand. the temple caved in during heavy rain some years back, so its been restored
and this temple, its a copy of a temple in India. cant remember which province this is in tho.
have some kip - ZzZzZz
if the bird at the front looks familur, its Garuda
lotus seeds. you can eat them, although some seeds are a tad bitter
insects - taste good with a beer, not for breakfast
larvae
oh and i just found that comment about the right arm so funny.
(oh, and who could forget china itself! 
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