Sawatdee Pii Mai

[Dodger]

"Happy New Year" to all you maniacs near and far.

I'm sending out my greeting early as Jai and I are heading up to the Northlands for the holidays as we do every year.

Thais love their "sanook" as evidenced by that fact that they celebrate 3 New Years, e.g., Songkran in April (Buddhist New Year), International New Year on Jan 1, and the Chinese New year celebrated later in January/early February depending on the stars. These are all fun events with plenty of festivals going on, but, as most know, the traffic is horrendous.

We have a home in Buriram where a dozen of his family members from out-of-town always hang their hats during the holidays where we will be submersed in the Thais favorite pastimes of food, food & more food...coupled with loud music and plenty of sanook. We'll visit the local temple on Jan 1 for merit making...visit neighboring Nackon Rachasima for their annual festival...Jai and his cousins love the food...I love the eye-candy.

I also plan to disappear for a few days and ride solo to the village of Kantharalak located on the Thai/Cambodian border where I spent a lot of time in an early chapter of my life. I will be visiting the family of my past partner (Thep) who passed away nearly 11 years ago...more merit making...more food...and best of all, a visit to the Khun Han Waterfalls where the village boys prefer swimming naked. I wrote about this place in many past trip reports and it remains one of my favorite places on Earth. Always an adventure. Enough said.

The highways between Pattaya and Isaan are much improved...safer than in the past...with shorter travel times on normal days....but I would avoid driving between Dec 28 - Jan 2.

Cheers

[Gaybutton]

Sounds like a great time. I'm envious . . .

Please be careful about all the drunk drivers.

[Dodger]

It's not too late to plan a visit to one of Thailand's festivals to celebrate the New Year with your Boy Special(s) in style. See link below:

https://edition.cnn.com/sponsor/edition ... paign=tath