Songkran (Thai New Year)

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Songkran is the Thai New Year celbration. For 3 or 4 days, depending where you are, everybody drenches each other with water. Buckets, Super-Soaker guns, hoses and even elephants are paraded around, dipping their trunks in a pond or tub of water and showering anybody in the vicinity.


They also cover each other in a white paste made of talc and water (Very Rolling Thunder Review). You walk down the street and person after person comes up and smears this stuff on your face. You have to be in the mood to enjoy it, which all Thai's seem to be. The talc dries like a paper mache if you can get away from the water long enough.


In one sense, it was great timing because we arrived in Ayuthaya on the first day of Songkran. The whole town really gets in on the fun. The down side was trying to go see all of the ruins while keeping a camera dry. Plus it was soo hot, it was just a lot to handle.


We thought we could see evrything we wanted to in one day, so we didn't bring a change of clothes, toothbrush, etc. So between 7-11 and letting stuff air-dry we were able to stay a night there and face the same thing the next day. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting.
On the train ride back to Bangkok, I was so tired and ready to get to a shower and fresh clothes. As we neared the terminal Sunisa and I were sitting across from one another, talking and joking around about something, then out of nowhere, somebody hurled a bucket of water from outside the train through the window. Sunisa got soaked and I barely got hit. I think I was slap happy, but it was one of the funniest things Ihave ever seen.


Sawatdee Wan Songkran

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