Adventures By Design

In which Songkran attacks, and Gin attacks back.

We slept in this morning, then lazed about our room before finally venturing out for breakfast. Today was a critical laundry day for Ric, as all of his clothes—minus a pair of pants and a T-shirt— were in desperate need of cleaning. So we brought all our stuff to the front desk to have it washed and returned to us the next day. Ric was literally down to his last T-shirt and pants; unfortunately, this had dire consequences later in the day, when he returned to the hotel room soaked to the skin and prowling for dinner (Gin made a solo trip for take-out, while Ric stayed home and wrote the bulk of this posting).

As we ventured out from our hotel we found that Chiang Mai had come alive with water-splashing revelry as anything that could hold water was used to soak passersby. Some combatants formed brigades who would roam the streets, while others ambushed their targets in traffic bottlenecks, using huge hose-fed rain barrels. (We’ve got some great videos that we’ll upload.) While the roamers were more mobile, their linchpin was finding a source of water from which to reload. Generally this meant groveling up to an ambushers’ barrel and acquiescing to a thorough dousing; the ambushers were completely willing to give away their water, but their were also completely willing the ensure you paid the price.

Given the volume of airborne water, everything you were carrying—passport, camera, map—was guaranteed to get wet. We left most of our belongings at the hotel, and put plastic bags on others. But the question became how do we take photos of the event without sacrificing our cameras? Ric had read about one unorthodox technique for waterproofing a camera: slide a condom over it. According to our source at the DIY site extraordinaire instructables.com, the image quality isn’t effected too badly if you get the right thickness and color of condom, despite the fact that you’re shooting through a piece of latex. And of course, non-lubricated and untextured condoms work best.

Our skills with the Thai language being completely non-existent, we couldn’t read the condom packages in stores to see if they were non-lubricated, so we asked the staff in a couple of pharmacies but no one seemed to sell such a thing. We theorized that the throngs of fit, young, gap-year bucks wanted their condoms as primed and ready as they were, to be called into action at a moment’s notice; and thus prepackaged lubrication is a must, while texture adds some exciting zing.

In the end we just bought the cheapest condoms we could find, reasoning that they were likely to have the least added features. We returned to our hotel to discover they were lubricated, so, you guessed it, we proceeded to wash them in the sink and dry them in front of our fan. The washing and drying was actually quite successful, but when we tried to put the condoms on the camera all three of them split open! Blast!! Defeated, we stuck a plastic bag over the camera and resigned ourselves to poor-quality photos. Alas, catching that perfect National Geographic fast action shot… of recently-flung water gracefully floating in mid-air moments before they crash over their intended target’s gleeful face… will have to wait for photographers more well-equipped, skillful, or at least willing to sacrifice their gear, than Ric. Perhaps Ben or Steve can capture the moment for us?

Our venture out onto the streets of Chiang Mai served two purposes: not only were we looking to join the water fight action, we also wanted to buy a card reader so we could view photos from Ric’s camera on Gin’s computer. We hugged the back streets, avoiding the worst of the action. We had been warned yesterday that to venture near the main roads was to ensure a dosing with every passing motorist. Nonetheless even in the narrow back streets, children lay in wait for us, admonished by their mothers to stay close to home, and building excitement until we lumbered past and fell victim to the raw energy of their ten year old enthusiasm.

Despite the fact that from the moment you left your hotel you were soaked, everyone was laughing and having a great time. Foreigners in general, and Gin in particular, seemed particularly choice targets for bombardment. She decided she wasn’t going to take it without retaliating, so we bought a pair of matching water guns. Armed and ready for action, we set off to spread some of our own new year’s spirit.