April 15th, Tax day

Hi All,

  We signed, scanned, and returned our tax forms yesterday.  Thank goodness for electronic filing.  Hopefully some of our tax money will go to the Roanoke County Public Library and libraries in general. 

  On the 13th Elizabeth and I went off to the "Water Festival" and got wet.  That was fun.  Yesterday E came with me to get my hair cut which needs an email of its own (so you can imagine) and then we took the rickety old 203 bus to Tesco.  We finished shopping at 4 pm and waited until 4:40 for the bus.  It came but its brakes weren’t working.  At our own risk we could ride it back to the bus terminal next to the marina.  We said yes.  But the driver didn’t want to drive a bus with bad brakes so waited for the other 203 bus to come, maybe to switch drivers….it was a bit hard to follow.  We had a kind young architecture student as an intermediary but even he didn’t really know what was what.  The next bus came, the original old rickety one we’d taken to get to Tesco, and we got into that one for the hour or so ride home.  (The Tesco route only has old rickety buses and it has a hill on the route.  On our trip home, the driver needed 3 tries to make it to the top.) Luckily it wasn’t crowded so we could have a seat for our bags and one for ourselves.  Sometimes we do a huge shopping and take a taxi.  But this was a two bag only shopping trip so we were determined to take the bus and leave the taxi with its too high rate sitting empty.  Next time I’ll bring a snack.  I was hungry, hot, and tired (and cranky) by the time the kind bus driver dropped us off in front of the marina rather than a half block away at the bus terminal.  Elizabeth good kindly put up with my bit of whining.  That "British stiff upper lip" line is true.  They don’t whine!  Cold, cold and wet, tired, and hungry all make me whine.  Luckily it doesn’t happen often.  Luckily all of the other bus routes have quite new, comfortable buses with brakes!

Ru

DoraMac

Songkran: Thai New Year Water Festival

“Songkran is the Thai word for change, and on this day the position of the sun in the Zodiac will be changed. The New Year is celebrated in style using bucket loads of water. The Thai community believes that water when mixed with fragrant herbs can be used to wash bad luck away. Those who are attending the event should be prepared to get drenched as this is the day whit it is perfectly acceptable for anybody to pour a pail of ice cold water over another person! You have been warned.” iN PENANG

A water splashing festival was exactly what it was.

Elizabeth talked me into going off to the “water splashing festival” with the happy thought that in the afternoon heat getting soaked might be rather nice. She didn’t have to twist my arm so very hard and we certainly had a good time. It was interesting thinking what clothes to wear that wouldn’t look so odd going home on the bus afterwards wearing wet clothing. At the same time, I had the ridiculous idea that the locals wouldn’t really soak two western “little old ladies.” Hah! You were there, you got wet!

Taking photos was a bit difficult because I didn’t want to get my camera all wet. We tried to sneak by these guys with the hose, but no luck.

They went easy on us and it was more of a “wetting” than a thorough soaking.

Then we had to get past the guys with the water bottles and the blue buckets.

Those big bottles of water being sold weren’t for drinking. They were for pouring down the back of our necks and that’s exactly what happened. The first “pourer” asked permission, but after that Elizabeth and I were fair game like everyone else. A few were “Ice cold!” That is the Wat Chalyamangkla Buddhist Temple behind the men.

The photo is fuzzy but you can see Elizabeth having water poured down her neck. That was the original way it was done, gently, as a New Year cleansing. Now it’s hoses and buckets and giant water guns. We both had backpacks so it was a bit of a challenge to pour it down our necks. And it was always done from the back.

Elizabeth and I visited the Temple to see the Reclining Buddha and also to hide out away from the water throwers.

Wat Chaiyamangkalaram, also written Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram, is the largest Thai Buddhist temple in Penang. It is often called the Temple of the Reclining Buddha of Penang, on account of the magnificent reclining Buddha image house in the vihara. The image of Phra Chaiya Mongkol measures 33 meters (108 ft) from end to end. However, the statue was only built in 1958, in conjunction with the 2500th anniversary of the birth of Buddha, at a cost of M$100,000.

http://www.penang-traveltips.com/wat-chaiyamangkalaram.htm

Elizabeth is standing near the head.

She was smart enough to have a rain cover for her backpack. I had all of my things in plastic bags. The temple was quite a fantastic place.

Thai, English and Chinese.

I was noticing the other day how expensive it is to make signs here because you need to say the same thing in so many languages. We’re lucky George Town, like Singapore was formerly a British colony so English is the western language chosen. I guess the French and German tourists just have to tough it out.

Elizabeth was knowledgeable enough to find the list of donors quite interesting. I’m not sure if the

$ indicates US dollars or ringgits. Usually the Ringgit is RM$ or M$.

I was born in the year of the Tiger, 1950.

Behind the Buddha statues you can see squares. Each square holds an urn and the photo of the person is taped there too.

Randal was born in the year of the rat though here they call it a mouse, 1948.

We went back outside where this fellow was using a blue bucket to ladle water from a tank and tossing it at everyone. The man on the far left with dark hair is about to get a bucketful on his head.

These kids got us too.

I put my camera into a plastic bag, but that just made it harder to take photos so I gave up.

There was a second temple across the street but the rock music and the threat of thrown beer convinced us that we’d seen enough. We walked back to the bus stop and joined the crowd waiting for the 101 bus. It came but was already too full so we walked further back the way we’d come until we finally found a bus stop with just a few people waiting. This walking along did a fairly good job drying our clothes. Finally two 101 buses came along and we took the one less crowded and even managed to get seat half way along.

All in all it was quite fun. The local folks were kind enough to include us and we didn’t disappoint ourselves by not going and missing the experience. Adventures are more fun with a friend! Thanks for wanting to go Elizabeth.