Happy Songkran!

On Friday we left Pak Chong and flagged down a Bangkok bound bus on the main street and arrived in Bangkok's north / north eastern bus terminal two and a half hours later. We queued up for a taxi-meter and realised we didn't have the address of our hotel to offer our octogenarian driver. We set off regardless. We had decided for the last few days of our trip to check-in to a nice hotel - the Amari Atrium and eventually, with the help of a traffic cop and a couple of other passers-by, we arrived. It's certainly a nice change from the places we have been staying but we both realise we couldn't stay somewhere like this for long. The staff are just so overly attentive, which we're not really into and our conscience kicks in when a few hundred metres down the road people are living in tin huts. I realise this is the way of the world but it still doesn't lie too well with us. Also, the prices are tremendous; a pad thai (basic noodle dish) and drink is 300 baht - that's £5!! We walked out to a local café and paid 150 baht for two pad thai and 2 drinks. I guess we're just people who don't need any great luxuries in life.

On Saturday morning we headed out early to Chatuchak weekend market; the biggest in Thailand. We only lasted a couple of hours as it was just too hot.

The 13-15 April is the Thai new year - 'Songkran'. From Friday, the roads, as with any national holiday, started getting really busy and by Saturday a whopping 77 people had already been killed in road traffic accidents! The Songkran tradition used to be a gentle Buddhist ceremony where water is poured over Buddhas to signify the process of cleansing and purification for the new year. This still happens at the temples but these days people also take to the streets armed with industrial sized water guns and handfuls of flour and anyone can expect to be in the line of fire. People stand in wait for passing tuk-tuks and fling buckets of water at the occupants. Teenage gangs cruise along in the back of pick-ups to get and be got. We observed some of the celebrations on Saturday in the shopping district. It totally encapsulates the Thai philosophy of sanuk (fun). All in all a good place to be at the end of our trip.