Adventures By Design

In which the travelers try to stay dry and fail.

Today our grand plan was to buy some books for Gin at one of Chiang Mai’s many used book stores, followed by breakfast at the Art Cafe, a large restaurant on a busy corner near the moat. Through a strategic employment of back streets and shortcuts, we managed to arrive at our chosen bookstore without getting too wet.

Unfortunately, all the bookstores in this area were closed for Song Kran (massive water fights not being so good for paperback books), so we needed an alternate depot from which to stock up on books. We knew of another smaller bookstore that had been open last night when we walked home from the Sunday market. It is right in the heart of the old part of the city, basically at ground zero for water fighting. We decided to have breakfast, and then head there.

We ordered the big breakfast bowl which is basically poutine without the coronary, and watched the action unfold outside. Being on the corner meant that there was a constant, er, stream of waterfighters walking, riding, and driving past our window.

Our bellies full, we ventured forth, avoiding liquid missiles as best we could, but still arrived at the bookstore soaked to the skin. We chatted briefly with the bookkeeper, who unsurprisingly had his nose stuck in a book. While browsing, we suddenly heard the squeal of tires on road followed by the ominous crunch of plastic; we met eyes with the bookkeeper and after a preparatory deep breath, stepped out onto the sidewalk to investigate. Though shaken up, everyone seemed fine. As we surveyed the scene, two young foreign men were sheepishly pulling their scooter out from under the front of a police truck. Perhaps reading the alarm on our faces, the bookkeeper turned to us and said, “It’s not the first accident, and it won’t be the last.”

Books in hand, well, encased securely in a plastic bag, we returned to our hotel to hang out by the pool. On the way back though we didn’t do so well at avoiding the water fight. We arrived thoroughly soaked, and paused before entering the hotel to wring out our clothes. Watching us from the lobby were two younger women sitting at a table. Clearly they hadnt realize just how watery this water festival is: watching us slosh through, their eyes went big and mouths agape. This was how we first met Michelle and Heather.

We went back to our room, peeled off our soaking wet clothes, put on our swim suits, and went down to the pool, to ummm, get wet. It does seem a little silly to try to avoid the water outside only to jump into the pool, but at the pool we can climb out and read our books without being splashed, a totally different experience.

After a short time the two women we had seen in the lobby, Michelle and Heather, came down to the pool as well. We ended up hanging out in the pool talking to them until all our fingers were pruney. Michelle and Heather are sisters from Victoria, Canada; Heather has been in Singapore since January, doing a semester of university there. Now that she’s finished her semester, Michelle came to meet her and they are spending a month traveling around southeast Asia before they return home.

After the pool we were all starving so we went out for dinner, again trying to avoid buckets of water. This time we were pretty successful in staying dry. During dinner Michelle and Heather taught us a lot about gluten, dairy, and sugar intolerance and how that would affect travels through Asia. We are now counting our blessings that we can eat whatever we want (Gin’s pickyness not withstanding), and we don’t have to carry power bars and peanut butter around with us!