Songkran 2010

Most people who have never been to Thailand have no idea what “Songkran” is. I didn’t either until I experienced it last year and since then, it’s become the yearly holiday that I look forward too the most. “Songkran” is how the Thai people celebrate the “Thai new year” and it basically consists of a lot of a lot of alcohol consumption and a country-wide water fight.

In Chiang Mai, “Songkran” lasts for almost a week but here in Phuket, it’s only celebrated for a day and a half (the evening on the 12th and the full day of the 13th). As fun as it is, I find that a couple days is enough because you literally get soaked within 2 minutes of leaving your room. There’s really no way to avoid it. Got cash in your pocket? Nobody cares. A camera or cell phone? You’re still going to get water dumped on you. You just have to wrap everything up in plastic bags, grab a giant water fun and hit the streets – which is exactly what we did.

Here’s a video that my buddy recorded of the scene outside “Jungceylon” (which is a touristy mall here in Patong). It looks wild but there’s no isolated area where everyone went. He could have whipped out his camera at pretty much any point (and at any location) during the day and it would have looked the same.

Once the “Sangsom” (Thai whiskey) started flowing, we didn’t remember much but luckily we had some funny video footage to check out the following morning. This first video was filmed at a street here in Patong that’s infamous for “happy ending” massages (we call it the “dirty triangle”). It’s pretty self-explanatory really. We were drunk so we decided to run upstairs, cause a ruckus and as my so eloquently stated, we were going to “spray all the dick we could see”.

Now, in the comments section, there’s no need to call attention to the fact that we knew exactly where to go or that the girl at the front called me specifically by name (haha). It is what it is. Anyway, in this next video, we apparently barge into an Indian restaurant and spray down the waiter (ah, the shit you do when you’re drunk in Thailand).

And for the 3rd and final round, we ambush yet another restaurant, only this time, we get a taste of our own medicine as some seemingly unassuming girl who was sitting there eating pulled out a super-soaker of her own and started firing back. Bottom line; Thailand is amazing and so is Songkran. I can’t wait for next year!

Anyway, after spending the last half a year or so here at the Patong Boxing Gym, I’m going to head up to Chiang Mai on Thursday because everyone keeps telling me about the “laid back” vibe up there. So. I’ll check things out and post up reviews on some of the gyms. A lot of the trainers at the Patong Gym come from Siam no 1 in Chiang Mai so I imagine that the training up there is pretty decent.

And speaking of the training, here are a couple semi-recent videos of me working on my boxing with Ming (who as you can see is an amazing pad holder).

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