Friday 13th April in Thailand is the start on the Sonkran festival - Thai New Near. We're not entirely sure about the origin of the festival but basically everybody goes out in the streets armed with water pistols, buckets, barrels - basically anything that holds water - and drenches each other all day. In most of Thailand it lasts for 3 days but in Koh Tao it is basically just a one day thing.
We went out the night before and lost our bucket virginity (in Thailand they sell cocktails in small buckets so you get very drunk very quickly and everything is blurry after about 10pm!!). At midnight the water started getting thrown. We were at the Lotus bar on the beach in Koh Tao - our favourite bar (cheap G&Ts) - and people were just standing in the sea and throwing buckets of water over us. We staggered home at 3am (about 6 hours past our bedtime) and woke up with blinding hangovers!!!
We made it into Sairee village for brunch at 1.30pm and got soaked as predicted. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the weather is 30-35 degrees every day, Sonkran was cloudy and miserable and it periodically pissed down with rain so we were cold and wet and hungover and frankly couldn't face partying all day and night so slunk off home to get dry and have a hot shower. It is great to see all the locals - young and old - out to get drenched and to drench others!!
We ventured out again in the evening and met up with some friends but all we managed to do was watch a movie and slope off home at 10.15pm. We did get to say goodbye to our dear American friend, Nathan, who we sorely miss already, but basically the whole day was a bit of a washout (pun probably intended!).
Needless to say because of the wet and cold many people in Koh Tao have been coughing and snivelling the past week or so and I (El) have gone down with mild tonsillitis which is a bugger in 30 degree heat with broken AC.
Still, we're having a great time. We can't believe we've been here for over 4 weeks now, and expect to be here for another 6 or so. Time flies by when you get into a routine, but we're meeting lots of lovely people and getting lots of diving in so can't really complain.
Kieran nursing a hangover
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