Festivals

I have happened into the good fortune of going to two huge festivals in the past two weeks- one in Varkala, India and one in Chaing Mai, Thailand.  Festivals are a wonderful (and also very efficient) glimpse into a culture- plus they tend to be a unique way to interact with locals.  The thai teenagers attacking my "Farang" self with super soakers during Songkran might not have spoken english but that kind of interaction doesn't really require any language.

 The festival in India was, I think, for a Hindu god who was a reincarnation of Shiva and the god of the local temple.  I tried to learn about Hinduism a bit more while in India, and although I think I have a slightly better handle on it, there are so many gods and demi-gods and reincarnations of the gods (I think like 10,000) that I never quite got a complete understanding of what the festival was really about.  Regardless, the last night there was a massive parade that involved people on fire, crossdressers, elephants, firecrackers, and several floats that looked like they would have fit in well at Mardi Gras.  One of the floats had a giant TRex on it.  Not sure what that had to do with the Shiva reincarnate.  

Songkran in Chaing Mai was a bit more wild- basically its a city wide water fight where you can't walk outside without someone dumping a bucket of water on you or drenching you with super soakers.  Its a bit like a combination of Seafair and Bay to Breakers, but with more families and slightly less blacking-out.  The highlight of the 2 days was when we invited ourselves onto a pickup truck holding a bunch of Thai guys, one of whom was dressed up like a sexy (female) cupid and was dancing on top of the cab most of the time. 

Sadly I have no photos since my camera would have gotten soaked if I had taken it out.

The rest of my time in Chiang Mai included visits to Buddhist temples, wonderful meals with Julia and a trip to the farm where she has worked for the last year.  Her Burmese family there were great hosts- they made the most delicious BBQ short ribs I have ever had and showed us some sweet Burmese dance moves.  The temples I have visited have been ornately impressive and beautiful, but I've been surprised how organized and institutionalized buddhism is here. The temples are full of people praying to Buddha figures, and although I had always thought of Buddhism as more of a philosophy than a dogmatic religion, it looks just like every other religion I've seen, and even has rights-of-passages similar to Judaism and Christianity.

I'm now in Bangkok for 2 days where I am checking out more temples, etc. before heading to Krabi with Hilary and then Koh Samui and Koh Tao with Leigh.  If I blog for the next 2 weeks, it will probably be pretty boring- I doubt you'll want to read about me chillin on a beach. I have also changed my plans a bit and decided to go to Bali for a week- I don't know anything about it other than that I will get to surf more there, so if anyone has been there and has any advice, let me know!

Disclaimer for photos: the computer I am using right now won't let me upload photos from my camera so for this blog I am working from my Iphone camera and photos friends have emailed me- credit to Ieva for a few of these!

Drummers at Varkala Festival

Firewoman at Varkala festival

Buddha and I at Wat Doi Suthep

Monks on the Ferry