Farewell Dinner and SONGKRAN!!!

It was a joyous, emotional celebration last night here in Udon Thani as we had our official Farewell Dinner with the Habitat staff here as well as some members of the family who we helped build the house for.

Gracious hosts to the last drop, we had our own private airconditioned room at the restaurant along with a sound system (for karaoke round two as well as DJ'd music), a disco light system, and more delicious Thai food. The Singha beer as well as the Spy Original (a wine cooler type product that several of the ladies on our team have taken a liking to) were flowing early and often. Our hosts had prepared several slide shows of pictures taken of the team, which played in a loop on a big screen and several TVs around the room (the soundtrack was The Beatles "Ob-bla-di" and 4 Non Blondes "What's Going On" -- they played continuously for about 30 min).

Then we got to see two different traditional Thai dances, performed by Habitat staff in full costume. Next the Habitat staff had us sit in a large circle where all of the Thais in attendance tied small pieces of string around our wrist -- their way of giving us blessings for good luck. Finally all team members were individually recognized and given certificates for our work. We gave the Habitat staff a thank you card (written in Thai by Kristi, one of the team's artistically talented members) as well as a framed picture of the team.

Today we were lucky enough to sleep in a bit, and after breakfast together got started with SONGKRAN!! Thai New Year officially began today and runs through Thursday, and consists of paying homage to elders by gently sprinkling scented water on their hands juxtaposed with the racous water fights on every street in every city across the country. Today we took part only in the racous bit...after filling huge garbage cans with ice water, filling up our newly purchased super soakers and climbing into the backs of three pick up trucks, we made our way through the streets of Udon Thani like the Ferang (Thai for foreign) bandits we are. The Habitat staff accompanied us and I think the experience can best be summed up with a quote from Kristi after about three hours of driving around at 5 miles an hour and 'fighting' the locals: "I've never been so miserably cold and wet while laughing so hard in my life". The white powder you see everywhere in the pics below is baby powder...not sure when or why this part of the celebration began, but many revelers also carry huge bottles of powder around and rub it on the cheeks, chins, foreheads, etc. of strangers. Fun times today!!

We head out tomorrow for Pattaya...stay tuned for news from the beach!

For those interested here's where we are staying: http://www.pattayaresort.com/

(fancy!)