Thai new year Songkran festival

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The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April, although in reality it goes on for about a week. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.

The main celebration is to soak everyone in the vicinity with as much water as possible and to then cover them in mud. Being utterly mature I of course headed out straight away with a water pistol my friend got for me and joined in the fun, only stopping periodically to stock up on Thai lager or admire bullet holes in the walls of the buildings from the protests the other day. We even managed to lay our hands on a rediculous amount of the mud stuff they were covering everyone with and got our own back on the locals.

Its a great festival, somehow it doesn't get out of hand in the way you would imagine a waterfight involving everyone in the city, kids in the back of taxi's and trucks and a heck of a lot of cheap beer would in the UK, and Thai people are really great, wishing us happy new year in Thai and English before wiping mud accross our faces :P

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