Happy New Year (Songkran Festival)

HAPPY NEW YEAR...

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand...

The Thai New Year (สงกรานต์ = Songkran in Thai language) is fixed every year from 13 to 15 April. The Burmese New Year Thingyan is announced by the traditional calendar of Myanmar Team and normally falls around 13 April. Cambodia celebrates from 13 to 15 April as the Cambodian New Year on the full moon of the eleventh lunar month, at the end of Cambodia's rainy season. The Lao New Year is celebrated every year from 13 to 16 April.

The Water Festival (Thai:Songkran:สงกรานต์) is the form New Year celebrations take in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and the Chinese province Yunnan on the day of the full moon of the 11th month of each year. It is called the 'Water Festival' by Westerners because people throw water at one another as part of the cleansing ritual to welcome the new year.

Traditionally people gently sprinkled water on one another as a sign of respect, but as the new year falls during the hottest month in South East Asia, many people end up dousing strangers and passersby in vehicles in boisterous celebration. The festival has many different names specific to each country, such as Songkran in Thailand and Pi-Mai Lao in Laos (translates as "New Year"), Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia, and Thingyan in Myanmar.

The New Year is celebrated in other south asian countries, based on the astrological event of the sun beginning its northward journey. Traditional dance, singing and cultural shows are performed together during the festival. Religious activities in the tradition of Theravada Buddhism are also carried out at both Pagoda and Monastery. Young people visit elders to pay respect during this period.

So, i am having a looooong holiday, because in Laos where i am now, the government has declared a week long holiday... No government offices activities, no banks, no school... so, sleep and eat and play water... LOL!!

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Eating Insects As Foods

Eating insects for food, snacking on crickets, snakes, baby nestling sparrows, mice, scorpion soup.

Entomophagy is the habit of eating insects as food. While it is common for many insects, birds and animals to indulge themselves, did you know that people in some parts of the world consider insects a very tasty delicacy?

If you live in Beijing or Bangkok, for example, you might fancy a taste of crickets. Or maybe you would prefer baby nestling sparrows, mice, snakes, or maybe a bowl of scrumptious scorpion soup?

These are all on the menu, as you can see from the pictures here.

These is very comment over here in Laos, as will as in the Northern and North Easthern of Thailand and some part of Bangkok (on insert selling). Also can been easily bought in Cambodia and Vietnam. To the locals, those are the 'expensive foods' and only those who have 'extra money' to spent, who can enjoy it!

I have once been visiting my old friend's house and they specially arrange and serves me the insert (crickets) just because i am consider their 'special guest' and as to shown me their appreciation on my visit to their home!! Frankly speaking, even after been staying here in Laos for the past ten years, i have yet try any of these so call 'expensive foods'!!

One man's meat is another man's poison, as they say. So, have a nice day. And enjoy your lunch.

Ancient Temple Torn by Border Fight in Asia

August 5, 2008 — Buddhist monks stroll the grounds of Preah Vihear temple — a sacred site at the center of a potentially violent political standoff. The complex dates from the ninth to eleventh centuries A.D., when the Khmer Empire controlled both sides of the modern Thailand/Cambodia border.

The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but wrangling continues over 1.8 square miles (4.6 square kilometers) of land that provides access to the site.

The standoff, which began July 15 after UNESCO named the temple a World Heritage Site, has soldiers from both sides positioned near Preah Vihear; and many Thais and Cambodians praying for peace

Cambodian military police keep an eye on Buddhist monks at Preah Vihear on August 1, 2008. "We want to preserve the status quo, of before July 15, [which means] there are no soldiers in the disputed area," said a Cambodian embassy official in Washington, D.C.

He added that Cambodia was waiting for the Thai government to begin withdrawal of troops, as agreed in bilateral meetings last week. "How long we can wait I don't know."

Bun Rany, wife of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, joins a ceremony in hopes of ending the military standoff near Preah Vihear temple on August 1, 2008.

Longtime ruler Hun Sen won a general election last week, boosted by his tough tactics in the temple dispute.

Meanwhile Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who supported Cambodia's UNESCO bid for the site, faces the ire of Thai nationalists who consider the temple part of their own nation!

Thai troops guard a Buddhist pagoda near Preah Vihear temple on July 20, 2008.

Preah Vihear is a remote, cliff top temple perched on the edge of a high plateau that offers staggering views over the verdant Cambodian plains. The complex's Hindu characteristics (it is dedicated to Shiva) are more akin to Cambodian cultural sites like the legendary Angkor complex; but the most accessible entrance to the site is through Thailand.

A Thai student hustles through a pipe as part of an evacuation drill in Baan Phum Salon on July 23, 2008.

International politics have local relevance for people living in communities surrounding the Preah Vihear temple.

During Cambodia's civil war Preah Vihear was used as a base by the Khmer Rouge. Landmines are still common in the area, though a Thai official said the two nations pledged last week to work together to remove them.

Passions erupt as a villager hurls a stick at nationalist protestors in the Thai community of Kantharalak.

On July 17 villagers and police prevented nationalists from gathering at the Preah Vihear temple.

Damrong Kraikruan, Charge d'Affaires at the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington, D.C., said hope for peace sprang from a meeting of Thai and Cambodian officials last week. "We agreed to redeploy troops from the area, on both sides, and decrease tensions," he said.

Thai (in black) and Cambodian soldiers swap coffee and smiles near the Preah Vihear temple on July 25, 2008.

Tensions have eased, and the Thai cabinet approved a troop pullback on August 5. But soldiers remain on site and the longstanding land dispute appears far from finalized.

In fact, a similar standoff may be taking shape on another temple ground, Ta Moan Thom, located 80 miles (130 kilometers) away along the nations' shared border.

Credit: National Geographic