McBlog

So, here we are in Bangkok and it’s damned hot (35 Celcius and more every day) and humid beyond belief. We’re talking 2, 3 or 4 showers a day and it’s STILL not enough. It’s great to be here again – I missed this place. We came into the new airport (Suvarnabhumi Airport) and it looks great from the outside but once you get inside it’s all raw concrete and looks sorta unfinished. Officially it’s finished – oh – OK – oops – sorry – my bad…

Right now it’s Songkran (Thailand’s new year) and the place is going nuts. Everyone drives somewhere to be with family, usually into the country. They’re trying to keep the holiday road toll below 400 this year (yes, that’s 400 deaths in 4 days) as it’s usually around 450-500 people over the 4 day Songkran period. It officially started today (Saturday) but they start the road toll on the Friday. So far, it’s over 50 people dead on the roads already.

That’s almost 1/3 of Australia’s annual road toll in 4 days. Amazing.

Traditionally Songkran involves sprinkling a little bit of water on people for good luck. In true escalation of warfare style, this has now evolved into dumping buckets of ice-water on people out in the street. Water pistols & super-soakers are everywhere. We’ve already been squirted just walking a couple of blocks to the 7-Eleven. Mind you, with the heat, it’s kinda welcome. Mom has picked up a backpack super-soaker for Nykolai and he’s going to camp out at the gate to the building and squirt hell out of those going past. He gets all the luck… :)

After Songkran I’m planning to catch up with a few of the people we work with over here – folks from the UN and NGOs. Should be fun to put names to faces.

For now it’s a few beers, some great food (mmmm, spicy!!!!) and hanging out with family while sitting in the breeze of an electric fan. Woo hoo :)