After a night at the funeral came a day of celebration. It was the second day of Songkran, which coincides with my friend's birthday. In the morning, we went to pay a short visit to his grandmother's house at another corner of the village. Unlike his parents' home which was built on flat ground, his grandmother's house was those typical Thai stilt houses. Oh's relatives were starting to stream into the house, who had returned from every parts of Thailand during this festive season to visit their elders.
Oh had wanted to bring me to visit the nearby waterfall, but had been told that recently there had been rather little water at the waterfall, hence it wasn't quite a good time to visit now. That came as a disappointment, as it meant one less place to go now. Oh then brought me on his motorbike in search of water splashing happenings in the vicinity, something which I had much anticipated. Although water splashing is part of the Songkran Festival, the degree of water splashing differs from region to region. In the heart of Bangkok like Khao San and Patpong districts, everybody splashed water at anybody, and at times it resulted in tragedies when the fun got too far. In remote places like Oh's village, there were still such practices, but at a lesser degree. What we had here is only groups of youngsters stationing at the side of the roads with big containers of water, waiting to splash at oncoming motorists or armies of "water troops". Oh and I even joined a group of such youngsters in the fun, although we were complete strangers. The head of the gang, whom I believed is much older than I am, even explained to me about this Songkran Festival in relatively good English (at least better than I am with my Thai!). During the Songkran Festival, everyone's supposed to be happy, so one is not supposed to get mad when splashed at. However, there were exceptional cases when people's handphones or electrical and eletronics equipments get damaged in the process of all these splashing. Of course, the Thais do see who their "victims" are before splashing, like they would not splash at elderly people, people carrying goods behind them, or people who had signaled their intention not to take part in their fun by waving at them from afar, not driving past them at a fast speed, but then again, sometimes accidents do happen when the splashers failed to read their signals correctly.
After having quite a bit of fun at the water splashing game, we headed back to the venue of the funeral last night, as there was some celebration activities going on on an open field nearby. At the field, there was a football match going on. What was interesting was that all the football players on the field were either ex-classmates or cousins to my friend. Oh's younger brother, Eh, was even the best soccer player among the bunch, and he was said to be the most feared player by others. I couldn't even remember when was the time I had seen so many of my relatives at one time!
The soccer game was paused during an interval, when another activity was about to be commenced at the adjacent field. Over there, a group of elderly folks were seated on some chairs in a few rows, waiting to be "bathed". This ceremony is similar to the bathing of the Buddha statues and splashing of water by the youngsters, but of course they do not get splashed ruthlessly from head to toe with icy cold or dyed water. What was done was actually by pouring small amount of flowered water into the palms of these elderly people, while wishing them a happy New Year. This is considered a form of respect for these elderly people, something which one rarely see in Bangkok. Of course, after the end of the ceremony, people starts the common practice of splashing water at one another again, while the soccer match resumed.
The sky turned dark and thunderous halfway through the match, hence Oh and I decided to head back to his home to get changed and rest for a while before heading off to his grandmother's house again later in the evening for a get-together party. Well it may be called a "party", but there was no wild dancing or rounds after rounds of booze. It was just a very family-oriented gathering over food and some liquor, for the relatives to catch-up with one another whom one might not have chance to even meet on ordinary days. Although I don't quite understand what everyone's talking about, it was still a rather interesting experience. The folks seemed rather interested at my background, especially since some had never even seen a real Chinese in their life. It was also during this get-together that I tried "smelly fish" (a kind of fermented fish prepared just like how fermented toufu is done) for the first time, and I could see that Oh's relatives were quite impressed that a non-Thai like me can actually appreciate such food.
We left the household at around 9pm and headed back to Oh's house. It was still early to sleep for me, but since there wasn't anything much to do in the night, I just decided to turn in early...
Oh had wanted to bring me to visit the nearby waterfall, but had been told that recently there had been rather little water at the waterfall, hence it wasn't quite a good time to visit now. That came as a disappointment, as it meant one less place to go now. Oh then brought me on his motorbike in search of water splashing happenings in the vicinity, something which I had much anticipated. Although water splashing is part of the Songkran Festival, the degree of water splashing differs from region to region. In the heart of Bangkok like Khao San and Patpong districts, everybody splashed water at anybody, and at times it resulted in tragedies when the fun got too far. In remote places like Oh's village, there were still such practices, but at a lesser degree. What we had here is only groups of youngsters stationing at the side of the roads with big containers of water, waiting to splash at oncoming motorists or armies of "water troops". Oh and I even joined a group of such youngsters in the fun, although we were complete strangers. The head of the gang, whom I believed is much older than I am, even explained to me about this Songkran Festival in relatively good English (at least better than I am with my Thai!). During the Songkran Festival, everyone's supposed to be happy, so one is not supposed to get mad when splashed at. However, there were exceptional cases when people's handphones or electrical and eletronics equipments get damaged in the process of all these splashing. Of course, the Thais do see who their "victims" are before splashing, like they would not splash at elderly people, people carrying goods behind them, or people who had signaled their intention not to take part in their fun by waving at them from afar, not driving past them at a fast speed, but then again, sometimes accidents do happen when the splashers failed to read their signals correctly.
After having quite a bit of fun at the water splashing game, we headed back to the venue of the funeral last night, as there was some celebration activities going on on an open field nearby. At the field, there was a football match going on. What was interesting was that all the football players on the field were either ex-classmates or cousins to my friend. Oh's younger brother, Eh, was even the best soccer player among the bunch, and he was said to be the most feared player by others. I couldn't even remember when was the time I had seen so many of my relatives at one time!
The soccer game was paused during an interval, when another activity was about to be commenced at the adjacent field. Over there, a group of elderly folks were seated on some chairs in a few rows, waiting to be "bathed". This ceremony is similar to the bathing of the Buddha statues and splashing of water by the youngsters, but of course they do not get splashed ruthlessly from head to toe with icy cold or dyed water. What was done was actually by pouring small amount of flowered water into the palms of these elderly people, while wishing them a happy New Year. This is considered a form of respect for these elderly people, something which one rarely see in Bangkok. Of course, after the end of the ceremony, people starts the common practice of splashing water at one another again, while the soccer match resumed.
The sky turned dark and thunderous halfway through the match, hence Oh and I decided to head back to his home to get changed and rest for a while before heading off to his grandmother's house again later in the evening for a get-together party. Well it may be called a "party", but there was no wild dancing or rounds after rounds of booze. It was just a very family-oriented gathering over food and some liquor, for the relatives to catch-up with one another whom one might not have chance to even meet on ordinary days. Although I don't quite understand what everyone's talking about, it was still a rather interesting experience. The folks seemed rather interested at my background, especially since some had never even seen a real Chinese in their life. It was also during this get-together that I tried "smelly fish" (a kind of fermented fish prepared just like how fermented toufu is done) for the first time, and I could see that Oh's relatives were quite impressed that a non-Thai like me can actually appreciate such food.We left the household at around 9pm and headed back to Oh's house. It was still early to sleep for me, but since there wasn't anything much to do in the night, I just decided to turn in early...
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