04-15-2004

“SON KHRAEN” (Thai New Year)

April 13, 14, 15

DAY 1

What an AMAZING holiday!!!! Today was a gigantic, city-wide WATER FIGHT!! All my little cousins were over, my Thai friends came around 12:30pm, and Thisie and Katy were over. All in all, I had about 20 people playing at my house. It was crazy fun—especially the surprise attacks from the neighbor boys that we never really did seem prepared for—lol… The trucks filled with people and icy water, the music and Thai dancing, the baby powder, the water coming from every direction….Why on earth don’t we have this holiday in the West?!?! The best part about Son Khraen is that anyone is a fair target… old women, kids, motorcyclists, trucks, song-taeos, everyone plays—so everyone’s a target *cue evil laugh*. Oh, and as for the baby powder—everyone has cooling powder and they wipe it on each others’ faces—it has a strange burning sensation for those of you who have never felt it before. As you might guess, this happens to the fulong (foreigners) about every .2 seconds… oh well, that’s what I get for being white in Thailand!!

DAY 2

Today papa drove me to Sakun Thai (Gwen’s house), and Ma Khuan (Gwen’s hostmom) and I went shopping for fruit and Cha Yen (a delicious type of tea) in the market. Then we all went and picked up the other fulong (except mike). Ma Khuan’s husband drove us around for an hour in his pick-up truck. We had two big basins of water and water guns in the back of the truck and again played with the whole city—but this time we were in Ubon instead of Warin Chamrab. Then we went to their friend’s house and ate lunch. We had FREEZING water to play with and fruit to give away to the kids in the trucks that passed us by. Then Gwen, Thisie, and I danced on stage to Thai music to stop the trucks so that they would play with our house. I had to head home early because I was going to Si Saket with mama and Pock (my brother) at 5:30pm and I needed a quick nap before I could stand being up late with my family. So I came home, showered, changed, and took a nap. Then we headed out. There were like 70 people there. We ate dinner and played games. One game was worth 4000 baht ($100) and one game was worth 5000 baht ($125)!!! Pock one the 4000 baht game… The whole night everything was completely in Lao so I only understood about half of it because I don’t speak as much Lao as I do Thai. At the end we did a beautiful ceremony. All the grandparents sit in a line and the kids and grandkids create a line standing up. You pour perfume water on their hands and say something along the lines of “koa hai mi quam suk, kang rang, le nam drrui!” (“I wish you happiness, health, and wealth”). After this ceremony they put on a New Year’s song and we stood in a circle, crossed our arms, and held hands. We were at the party for over 3 hours… then I came home and passed out!

DAY 3

Katy and Thisie weren’t home like they were supposed to be—but oh well, that just means we needed to improvise a bit… We all ended up just meeting at my house (me, Gwen, Katy, and Thisie). Then we walked around Warin and got soaked. Then we caught a ride on a truck and saw our friend Ying. So we stopped at Mu-mi’s house (that’s where Ying was playing too). We chilled there for awhile and then Mirjam and Megumi showed up…. So we ripped Thisie away from the karaoke and headed back to my house. The we waited for Gold and Mim to pick us up. We around around Ubon in their truck. All in all—it was a chill day, but by far the worst of the three days.

CONCLUSION: Son Khraen is an amazing holiday, BUT it should only be 2 days

long.

Well, hope to hear from y’all soon!

-Kati-

PS- Tomorrow morning I move to my new house, and I don't know if they have

internet or not so I have no idea when I'll be writing next... oh, and I

leave for a 10 day tour of the south of Thailand on Monday... so yeah... who

knows when you'll hear from me next….