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17.
Songkran
23rd
April 2005
 Hello everybody,
Wow! I have had a fantastic little holiday recently. I
asked for some time off a few months ago and was very
cunning and asked for it during the New Year celebration
time in Cambodia/ Laos/ Thailand/ Burma.
So
I enjoyed the lead up to my third New Year in 2005 with
a cool group in Cambodia before I waved them goodbye and
walked into the Songkran festival streets of Bangkok.
Songkran again - how much fun! I told you all last year
that it was the best festival ever and I will remind you
again.
Officially
the new year started on the 13th but by the day before
most people were all geared up. The base hotel where Intrepid
stays in Bangkok is smack bang in the middle of the festivities.
All the roads are blocked off by the middle of the day
and trying to get groups to/from bus/plane/train stations
is a massive undertaking but I didn't have a group so
it was all water and fun for me.
The
streets are massive water fights and 'bang' (white powder)
covered messes. Music playing at each corner and icy water
pouring beer sellers every five meters. Classic scene
I walked past of an old grandmother running from out the
back of her shop with a large supersoaker, she took aim
at her very young granddaughter and pow completely saturated
her. Huge grin on grandmas face.
Check
out some photos at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4441471
Leaving
a bunch of wet clothes and my faithful supersoaker behind
I went off to Hong Kong. I had never been to HK before
but was actually looking forward to being in a mega metropolis.
I was very lucky that a leader friend was in town and
he was hanging out with some of his old passengers who
are teachers at the Australian International School.
Straight
off the plane and I was in the trendy Soho district. A
little bit of culture shock as there were so many tall
foreigners neatly dressed in the area. Not one pair of
Thai fisherman's pants or dreadlocked hair to be seen
- freaky!
Had
a great night and tasted the most spectacular strawberry
chocolate daiquiri in my life. Ended the night with a
bowl of HK noodles at 4:30am and found the way back to
the guesthouse only to find that there was no electricity
between 4 and 8am in the morning. So barely managed to
walk up the 8 floors by candle light.
Met
up with the teachers again for a dim sum lunch. Tasty!
And then they took us across to Lantau island for a short
hike. I never thought that there would be green areas
in HK but it was beautiful.
A
group of boxers from the gym I train in Bangkok had also
gone to HK for a fight. Got myself in for free and hung
out 'back stage' during the fights. All was good as they
won their matches with no major injuries.
Headed
out for supper with an up and coming boxing promoter "Master
Kim". Dim sum eating at midnight including a taste
of shark fin soup then the obligatory karaoke. Fortunately
not the best range of English songs so got out of that
quite well! Fascinating to watch a true HK businessman
at work.
Master
Kim was a meet and greet contact talking, shouting, sharing
guy. As one bar closed the group would move to the next.
Meeting and greeting these 'friends'. Apparently he is
only 'middle mafia' but working his way up. I was fading
by 6am but had no idea where we were to make an easy get
away. But Master Kim being the true host took us all out
for breakfast - the most crazy bowl of noodle soup I have
ever had the misfortune of having put before me. Usually
I can be polite enough and nibble away but I couldn't
see anything besides offal, stomach, liver and clotted
blood so I had to give it a miss.
I
barely had enough time to do some shopping in HK but managed
to squeeze a little bit in and finally got myself a camera.
Very cool new toy so I will apologise in advance for clogging
up your email boxes with all the shots I plan to take.
Back to work in two days. All ready and refreshed for
a new bunch of passengers.
Love
Marlo
About
the Author
Marlo Perry is a Group Leader for the Australian based
tour operator, Intrepid
Travel.
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