Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Back to the Bottle

Before coming to Thailand, the last bit of alcohol I had was in Diu, Gujurat - back at the beginning of January. It wasn't a difficult choice to make. India is not a drinking culture (especially in the north), and the people who do drink, do so purely to get drunk (a la Frat boys in the US). Bars are seedy places, the alcohol is horrible - and so, I quickly decided that I didn't need to drink anymore.

Thailand has a healthy drinking culture. Men and women do it, people seem to relax over a drink - and you don't see sketchy old men pissed in the street (most of the time).

The election happened 2 days ago, and so for the day before and the day of - alcohol was forbidden to be sold....

However, with that over....

They've been celebrating here in Pai for the last day or two. It's something to do with young men joining monkhood - there have been precessions in the street (costumes, dancing, music) - and it seems to be a general excuse for most of the townsfolk to have a bit of a dance, and get thoroughly pissed.

When in rome.

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