Dancing and Making Merit!

Wow Thai people can make anything and everything into a party! Literally!!

Last Saturday Caitlin and I (better grammer mother dearest??? :P) went to stay with Pippa (who actually has many names, Pbaa, Panfah, Panjai, Panun, and Chartirut... hard to keep up!) who lives in the village about 8km away from Na Kae, and found out that there was a celebration at the village that weekend to give merit to the Monks. We thought it was going to be pretty boring and formal, but then we remembered that we're in Thailand! Pippa took us to a party opposite her house where there was karaoke and dancing for hours! It is brilliant fun, and yes, I did sing. But I sang with Caitlin so it wasn't just on my own. We sang Zombie by The Cranberries because it is one of the only English songs that has made its way to Thailand, and it was loads of fun! Hopefully the listeners enjoyed it too...!

We met a lovely little girl called Print who kept dancing with us and was absolutely adorable - despite the fact that she took great pleasure in calling me and Caitlin "Ouan! Ouan! Ouan!" which means "fat" in Thai!

We all had loads of fun, and many many photos were taken (mainly on Caitlin's camera) because someone got hold of her camera and it got passed round all night with people taking photos which was brilliant! Some of the photos are not as flattering as they could be though...

Pippa, me and Caitlin

We got back to Pippa's house at about 11pm, and after chatting and laughing for a while finally went to bed at about midnight, trying to forget about the fact that we had to get up at 6am! We would have had to get up at 4am but we politely declined the offer to get up and cook - we'll cook another time when we're awake enough not to accidentally poison someone...

The next morning at about 6.30am we made our way back to where the party was to give merit to the Monks and then start walking up to the temple (it's just a small one at the back of the lae behind our host mother's house). Well, we thought we'd be walking, but again, we then remembered that we're in Thailand. We danced to the temple instead! And with us came a van with a band playing in the back of it, a huge model horse and a huge model elephant!!

After praying at the temple (and getting 1B coins and sweets thrown at us - it hurts if you're not paying attention!) we went back, and me, Caitlin and Pippa got to ride in the van with the band! Tomtom was playing the tambourine :) It was loads of fun but a bit bumpy, and mega loud because I was right infront of the speaker!

Caitlin, Pippa, Print, me and Pee Ann

It was a really fun weekend, if a little tiring! I want to know what they did with the giant elephant because I want to take it home! Might be a tad difficult to get it on the plane though...