Paradox

Had a decent sleep on the boat. At one point, a local took up residence on the other side of me and squeezed in. He reeked, so I snuggled up closer to the Canadian girl next to me. She didn't seem to mind. I'd much rather sleep in a dirty bed on a boat, than trying to sleep in a chair on a bus.

Made it to Chumpon around 6:00, taken to the Fame Tours office, then 6 of us were driven in a mini-van to Bangkok, and arrived at Koh San Road around 1:00. Since it's my last night in Thailand, I decided to treat myself to an A/C room at Baan Sabai for 450 baht.

Did some shopping, walked around, had lunch, blah, blah, blah.

In the early afternoon, ran into a couple that were on the mini-bus with me, they were just going to get drunk somewhere. They asked me to join them (she had the hots for me), they'd be somewhere on Koh San Road. So I went to my room, had a shower, dropped off shopping stuff, then back to Koh San Road and looked for them, couldn't find them. Bought pad thai from a street vendor and walked around. Stopped at a street side pub and had a couple of beers.

When we got back to Bangkok, Koh San Road was all plastered with Coke paraphenelia, Coke banners strung all down Koh San Road, huge posters all over. My first reaction, was "WTF, how can Coke has sponsor a street?". Well, the Thai New Year is coming up (April 12-15, 2008), called Songkram. It's also known as the Water Festival. Coke must be a major sponsor. There was a small parade down Koh San Road, with drums, handing out pamphlets about Songkram. Songkram to Thai's is like Christmas or Thanksgiving for us, very much a family oriented affair, where everyone uses water to wash away bad luck from their friends and families. It apparently goes quite a bit beyond that, and turns into a big water fight, people splashing and throwing water on everyone around them. I totally wish I could've stayed for this festival.

Went to bed around 10:00.