Songkran in Bangkok

Click that a couple times and it'll take you to a Youtube video to give you the flavor of a ridiculously fun festival. The Buddhist new year is a purification ritual, which translates into a three day water gun battle in the streets of Bangkok. Perfect for One Hundred (38 celsius) degree weather.

And it begins... These boys were taking to the streets the evening before. From this moment on, no one would be safe.

Folks were generous with supplying water for gun refills. By the time the holidays were over, I'm pretty sure every last person in the city was purified.

The Chatuchak Weekend Market covers roughly 35 acres, spanning multiple city blocks and contains thousands of stalls within a chaotic maze. To say the sensory stimuli is overwhelming is an understatement. There is absolutely no way of approaching it in any organized way, and so I figured I would just wander until I got tired and then find the nearest road where I might find a tuk tug to take me back across town. And so it was with great alarm when I stopped to pull out my phone and realized that I didn't have it. The most likely explanation was that I had set it down when I'd stopped for a cold beer about fifteen minutes earlier in a tiny alcove with two tables. But where was that? I do travel with backup, separating things for just this event. I carry credit cards in my phone case, one with the ability to withdraw cash and the other, with better perks. I've got a similar backup back with my stuff at the hostel. Too, I have an iPad back there where I can access a lot of the information I have on my phone. But still, Google Maps and Google Translate are pretty helpful when you're out and about, and well you know, losing your phone is almost like losing your arm. You're just bereft. What were the chances I could even retrace my steps the last five minutes when I'd meandered left, right, right, left past things, things and more things? Plus this was Bangkok! It would be latched up in a second! But guess what? To my own amazement, my feet took me back and there it was just where I'd set it down.

This was a more orderly section than most, running from street to street. Most of them had turns in both directions every few yards. And that was the type of labyrinth I was in when I lost my phone. Too, one gets turned around looking at stuff in front of you and behind you and catty-cornered from you and there is music of all different kinds from the stalls and a lot of the areas, like where I decided a needed a beer were so packed with people you were rubbing bellies.

Of course Bangkok has more modern areas and malls, some high end. I visited a couple looking for May Thai boxing shorts before I realized the specialized boxing apparel stores yielded more options. But the mauling of the world remains a disappointing phenomenon to me. The same stores, the same unimaginative "designer" clothes and accessories. Yes, they are cleaner... and I had a few moments on my travels throughout India and southeast Asia when I was over-the-moon-relieved to encounter the modern world again, notably in airports which had flush toilets and soap, some modicum of comprehension of the concept of hygiene, and prepared food that while may not have been flavorful or nutritious, probably complied with some standards of health. But truth be told the heavily perfumed duty-free shops one is forced to cut through depress me. The shoppers look like Barbie and Ken dolls. Every city has its Rolex, Cartier, Tiffany, Hermès, Louis Vitton, Swarovski and L'Occitane as well as its Samsonites and H&Ms. But honestly, I preferred to explore the parts of town where ordinary people live and love, where their struggles to eke out a living are visible. Where one can see the children playing and exchange warm smiles.