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Articles Tagged ‘Songkran’

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If You Didn’t Already Know That I’m Weird

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

I had a heck of a time trying to post this as there were problems with the site, and it took me days, but it looks like it will work now (part of it may have been somewhat my fault, but not really).

Okay, I know these pictures don’t seem to have much to do with traveling, but in a way they do. It was during Songkran in Thailand, and I wanted to stay dry (after having been soaked earlier), so while sitting in my room bored, I took these pictures. In a previous post, after showing one of the photos, I did a survey asking if you would like to see the series. The results were in favor of posting the series. So if you didn’t want to see them, but didn’t vote, you should have voted, and you must look at them. If you voted no, you can choose to look or not. If you voted yes, then here they are, enjoy. If you just randomly clicked on this post, and you don’t know me, welcome to my insanity.

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? You been out ridin' fences for so long now . . .

. . . Oh, you're a hard one, I know that you got your reasons. These things that are pleasin' you can hurt you somehow . . .

. . . Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy, she'll beat you if she's able . . .

. . . You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet . . .

. . . Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones you can't get . . .

. . . Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger. Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home . . .

. . . And freedom, oh freedom, well, that's just some people talkin' . . .

. . . Your prison is walkin' through this world all alone . . .

. . . Don't your feet get cold in the winter time? The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine . . .

. . . It's hard to tell the night time from the day . . .

. . . You're losin' all your highs and lows . . .

. . . Ain't it funny how the feelin' goes away? . . .

. . . Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? . . .

. . . Come down from your fences, open the gate . . .

. . . It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you . . .

. . . You better let somebody love you. Let somebody love you. You better let somebody love you, before it's too late.

Well, that’s it.

You might have noticed that my last post, (Legally) Qualified, is gone. That’s because the site lost all posts from Aug 17 to some date (unrelated to the problem of trying to post this), so I didn’t delete it for some reason. They suggested ways to get our posts back, but none seemed to work for me. I have no back ups of any of the posts I’ve written, so I guess I’m lucky I only lost one post. I wonder if any of you have saved some of my posts? Maybe it would be a good idea for me to have back ups, for the inevitable big crash.

Anyhow, if you didn’t already know it, now you all know that I’m weird.

Mark (Desperado) Schraeger

P.S. I still have no idea what the hell I’m doing with the rest of my life.

Posted in Posts With Pictures, Thailand, Travel | 2 Comments »

Blindsided In The Face With A Supersoaker

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006

I’ve been trying to write and post this for 3 or 4 days now, and either the site or the internet I’m using keeps crashing on me before I can finish writing it. So I haven’t abandoned you again. Hopefully I finally get to post it.

Well, looks like no one came up with the right guess of what happened to me here,

It's some kind of talcom powder mixed with water on my face. Also I'm soaked with water from head to toe.

I'm also soaken wet from head to toe

although that Stephen fellow had some interesting guesses.

What happened was I got caught out in the streets during Songkran, in Thailand. It’s the Thai New Year celebration, also known as the water festival, where everyone gets water, either shot at them from a supersoaker water gun, or dumped on them from a bucket, or whatever other means they can think of to soak a person with water. While some people douse you, others apply the talcom powder paste on your face. No one is immune. If you are outside you are fair game. It was kind of fun and interesting the first day, and maybe even the second, but they do it for like 5 or 6 days in a row. At least it’s hot here and it provides relief from that. But eventually you would like to just go outside and not have someone dump a bucket of water all over you, or rub the paste on your face.

Here are a couple of pictures of the festivities.

People getting the paste rubbed on their face.

The old bucket dump

These are from Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The pictures of me are from when I was near Khao San Road in Bangkok. It was completely insane there. I didn’t get any pictures though because I didn’t want to ruin my camera. What’s amazing is that it goes on for that long, and everyone is just as enthusiastic about it the on 5th day as they were on the first, like they hadn’t just done the same thing the previous 4 days in a row. It was okay, but it really sucks getting blindsided in the face with a supersoaker.

I also went back to Cambodia for a few days. I went to Siem Reap. I didn’t go there the first time I visited Cambodia. I think I was the only person in the history of travel to go to Cambodia and not go to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is where Angkor Wat is: the famous ruins from yesteryear. This is me with Angkor Wat in the background.

You like the hat?

You might recall I had some anxious moments during my last trip to Cambodia. This time I crossed at a different border, Poipet. This border has a sign above the booth that lists the price of the visa as $20 US, but they still have the balls to ask for 1000 Thai baht (about 25% more than $20 US). Even after you act like a monkey and point to the sign 5 times, they still demand 1000 baht. But again, I eventually only paid the $20 US.

My cousin posted a comment to my last post–with the pictures of me from Songkran–in regard to my perceived weight loss. Well her perception was right, I’ve lost quite a few pounds. That’s what a diet of rice and vegetables will do. Most people would think it is awesome that I’ve lost so much weight, but they are people who don’t realize that I had no weight to lose in the first place. I’m not too worried about it though, I’ve read on the forums here about others who lose weight travelling here long term. Plus most people who live here are just as thin as I am. And I still have my appetite, so I don’t think I’m sick or anything. I had been checking my weight by wrapping my hands around my upper thigh–I don’t have access to many scales here, and even if I did, they are in kilograms, and I don’t know how much I’m supposed to weigh in kilograms–and if my fingers touched it meant that I’d lost too much weight and needed to start eating more pizza. Well, I never thought that my fingers would ever actually touch, but recently, the tips of my fingers met for the first time. So I’ve been frequenting a place called The Pizza Company. It’s actually not too bad. It’s not New York or New Jersey pizza, of course, but it’ll do.

Okay, I think I may finally be able to post this, so let me do it now before it crashes on me again.

Posted in Cambodia, Posts With Pictures, Thailand | 3 Comments »