Monday, April 16, 2007

Happy Songkran everyone! Thailand is just finishing it's celebration of the Thai New Year and it's back to work tomorrow for me. The New Year lasts for 3 days here and each day the streets are filled with people throwing water on passersby and dancing like maniacs.

Of course I had to partake in the festivities and I had heard that the best place to be in Bangkok was at Khao San Road so I bought a giant water gun and headed over there on Saturday. It was pure chaos with tons of people filling the street so that you felt like cattle being herded to the slaughterhouse (o.k. maybe that's a bit dramatic). People were throwing ice cold water down my back and smearing plaster on my face; good times. I think they took special pleasure in attacking me because I was a farang (foreigner).

I could only take so much of the crowds because I tend to get quite claustorphobic so we headed down one of the little streets to relax and have some coffee and lunch. This was more pleasant because we were able to do some people watching and squirt people with our water guns without being man-handled by a giant crowd.

After spending most of the day in Khao San, the sun was going down and it was actually starting to feel quite cold so we went home, soaking wet and exhausted. It was a fun experience but probably something I would only want to do once. One more experience to cross off my lists of things to do in this lifetime!

More pictures uploaded to Flickr!

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10 comments:

Bailey said...

Claustorphobic huh? Maybe Thailand isn't the place for you! :-)

Looks like Songkran is a ton of fun. And a bit messy too!

Unknown said...

The Thai New Year (Thai: สงกรานต์ Songkran) is celebrated every year on 13 April to 15 April. It is also celebrated in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar (where it is called Thingyan), and by the Dai people in Yunnan, China. Sri Lanka also celebrates a similar festival called Sinhalese and Tamil New Year on the same dates. The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed . If these days fall on a weekend, sportsbook, the missed days off will be taken on the days immediately following Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then. http://www.enterbet.com

Unknown said...

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kamlavati said...

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Abd Rahman Md Desa said...

Very, very nice pics...

kimberly sayer said...

The Thai New Year (Thai: สงกรานต์ Songkran, from Sanskrit sankrānthi "astrological passage"; Chinese: 潑水節) is celebrated every year from April 13 to April 15. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed.costa rica fishingIf these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. If they fall in the middle of the week, many Thai take off from the previous Friday until the following Monday. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.
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Mark benson said...

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Unknown said...

nice moment
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