Songkran - The Big Party

Songkron, the big Thai party is over and I'm happy about that. Songkran is usually thought of as the "Water Holiday" as water is thrown on you and every one around you.

I want to be loving and it's nice to have

someone sprinkle a little water on you as a blessing but throwing a five gallon pail of water at you when you are going 40 miles an hour on a motorbike is terrorism.

To read stories written before about Songkran just clink on these links: SONGKRAN DAY ONE - SONGKRAN DAY TWO - SONGKRAN DAY THREE

About the only part of the holiday I did take part in was the whole family went

to Bang's house a few blocks away and had a Songkran dinner together. Bang is the young girl that got married last year and is expectant on May 7th. (Expectant was a term used in "I Love Lucy" many years ago.) You can read about Bang's wedding in the last half of a story written last

year by CLICKING HERE.

It was a nice time with Daeng's Mother blessing everyone

as the oldest in the family. (I think I'm older but that is another story.)

I did not take part in the ceremony as Daeng's Mother does not wash her

hands after using the toilet. I won't eat anything she has cooked or touched. As a matter of fact, I have never seen her wash her hands.

The young kids all played in the fish pond that was cleaned out. They used it as a kids pool and had a lot of fun together. I did eat some Akha food that Daeng's Sister-in-law cooked and it was very spicy.

It was a fun time but I'm very happy Songkran is over.

Tax Day in USA - Wash Day in Thailand

It may be tax day in the United States of America but it is wash day in the Kingdom of Thailand.

One of the things that Daeng likes about the USA is agitator washing machines because they beat the clothes clean. For some reason, maybe because they use so much water, agitator washing machines can not be found in Thailand.

Because of that, Daeng does the wash the way she usually does it here. She puts the clothes in tubs with soap and does the wash dance. Kind of like the old days doing the grape dance to get the juice out of the grapes.

Then she puts the clothes in other tubs for the rinse and does the dance on them again, twice. After that she puts the cloths in a water extractor. That is a machine that spins the clothes very fast to remove most of the water.

The nice part is she then hangs them in the sun to dry. Yea, clean and nice smelling clothes to wear.