Doi Suthep

Sixteen km n.w. of Chiang Mai (where i live) and looming over the city like a doting mother stands Doi Suthep. The 1676 m peak is named after the hermit Sudeva, who once called the mountain's slopes home. On top of this mountain is Wat Buak Khrok Luang., a little charming monistary.

Here is a view of the mountain from my apartment.


Anyway, a friend and i drove up on our motorbikes to the temple. Its a half-hour long ride along a suprisingly new and clearly marked road up a windey but not too windey path. Luckily it wasnt sweltering as usual so it was an awesome ride.

Once you park you have to climb a shitload of stairs up to the temple.



You meet all types of characters just hanging out on the stairs. Like this guy...



and then there are all these kids who i guess either are 1.members of the temple or 2.sent by their parents to ask people like me for money





"hey I live here, im no tourist, lets go left" my shadow said



OK here are some pictures inside the temple, it was such an amazing place. They really dont mind taking pictures at all, it actually seems that they like it because it shows people what their religion is about and how they practice it. Imagine just walking into a temple or church in the US in the middle of services and just snapping away. You would get sent to jail or something. Not in Thailand though. I dont know much about whats going on so I will just post the pictures.

i really really like this picture
























some dog hanging out


me being ignorant as usual






love this pic too






ok on my way down saw these two. the one girl tries to be nice and give the other a lick of her popsicle



but then looks really pissed when the other girls just takes the whole thing away



saw this awesome sign on the way home "drunk dont drive"...."drunk dont make sign properly"



and here is the dog that chills with the people that run my building...maxi...i might have to kidnap him when i come back to america...i will just make a fake dog out of paper mache and pull the old switch-a-roo....alacatraz style...

Songkran Fesitval ( Thai New Years + Thai National Waste Water Week )

Whats up..this is the week of the Thai New Years festival. It is called Songkran and its fucking out of hand...its one of the most amazing festivals ive ever been to including the running of the bulls and mardi gras...anyway basically its a festival where the whole city shuts down and turns into a giant water fight. People all over the streets and people in the back of trucks (in very unsafe numbers) just going all out and nail each other. I chose to roam the streets with my pump action fully automatic 12 gauge chrome glock supersoaker. Now it was hard to get pics because nothing is safe, they dont care if youve got a phone, a camera, food, a new born baby, or your 114 year old grandmother, nobody is safe, so most of the pics are from a safe distance. Now its one thing to get doused with water but its totally differnt when its ice water...it sort of like a fully body brain-freeze...tons of people die every year because there are all these crazy drunk ass thai people and their 20 drinking buddies driving around in a truck with people walking all around the car, and people on bikes all over the street. Hey, but whats a few lives for some good old fashioned fun, right? Although the festival is intense for 3 days, its possible to get soaked all week. For those 3 days though, its impossible to leave your house and not get soaked. So its drinking and water splashing during the day, with parties, concerts, and more drinking at night. First some pics of the water festival, then some of one of the concerts. (for more info about thai new years go here Wikipedia: Thai New Years

I made the pictures i really like a little bigger


First off you cant get anywhere in town because traffic is out of hand.


There are trucks packed with people moving at a snails pace so they can be sure to soak everybody.




Then you've got these groups of kids on the sides of the roads that have some incredible aim. SPLASH!





There are some people that are nice about it though, like this guy who would just give a handfull of water to every passing motorbike.






They start young very young.


Same kids, same amazing aim...


Now I headed over to the one of the bars along the moat. Camped out there with some friends, got a few drinks...and got in on the action (most of the pics taken from the safety of the inside of the bar)


splash!


Damn they were having a great time. So was the 50 year old english guy who was sitting behind them drooling the whole time.


here are some pictures from the roof of the bar...pretty intense action along the moat..



My friend who is filming some of the action.


some more from the bar


hey, there i am...(right after this my friend who was holding my camera got splashed but managed to save my the camera from getting wet)




Crazy shit..






SPLASH!


what an amazing day


OK, so at night the have this stage set up, some people from the town perform then there is a famour singer at the end, this also goes on for 3 nights.



my friend filming again






so i got bored because these kids performing sucked


dont ask me what this crap is...




Now the concert, it was this half thai/half austrailain girl named Lanna Commins, here mom was like the madonna of thailand (well only in the sense she was the most famous, she wasnt a nasty slut or anything though) Suprisingly this girls music was great. Her band was on point and the guitarist was awesome. I was actually getting really into it. She was up for best artist thailand at the MTV asia awards.








I really like this pic


this guy was awesome


and this guy was sitting next to me, he was so wasted, was dancing like a madman then all of a sudden in the middle of his jig he just passed out on the floor and could not be awaken. In typical thai fashion everybody just ignored him and danced all around him