EASTER IN THAILAND 4th April 2007

We only realised late Friday that it was Easter... no mention of Easter here. On Easter Sunday yachties from Yacht Haven Marina... were invited to the local village for their annual games day and Kings Birthday celebration ... I think that's what it was all about..??? We presented ourselves in white Yacht Haven shirts.. en mass... about 20 of us... at the village green.. school sports ground...not green, dusty brown due to water shortage here... at 8.30am!!! and were amazed to find about 2000 people all respectably attired in their "faction" colours and ready to take each other on in competitive games...

All teams had their compliment of lady boys to spur on the competition with dancing and frolicking. First up was a tug o war... Yacht Haven versus red team and we won after a lengthy tousle.... the games went on all day and our team dwindled away till there were 4 of us left. One funny game they call Superman involved men's and women's teams having to run round a witches hat wearing a pair of ladies panties then taking them off so the next person can put them on and they go again. It was hilarious.. my laughing muscles are really strained. 

In another game we were blindfolded, given a bamboo pole and had to set out to bash an earthen ware pot to bits . They turn you round so you don't know where the pot is then fall about laughing as you stumble blindly about bashing the ground!!! Anyway by about 3.30 pm we were stuffed and boiled so we retired to the air conditioning for a nap and then expected return to festivities at 8.00pm! they play hard these Moslem's! I don't remember ever going to such a big evening gathering........ again about 2000 people where there was absolutely no alcohol and no brawling and a huge sense of fun... amazing. They were so welcoming and we won a trophy... not sure for what but another yachtie and I went up on stage to get it.......We got back at about 11.30pm exhausted... but it was a great day and we felt really included. 

Another hilarious game involved one of our number, Peter, a young deckie off a charter yacht, New Zealander... we wont hold that against him... got into a large black plastic pool filled with water and thick red mud about 10 inches deep to catch eels and put them into a bamboo tube... the winner is the one who catches the most eels... well the eels won but Peter caught the most eels so we might have got the trophy for that!!!

Very disappointed that I somehow lost almost all the photos from the day.