Thai New Years Festival

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The night before our flight to Bangkok we are reading about a recent update to the protests going on in Bangkok as the ‘rebel’ redshirts (mostly peasants from the rural areas) are protesting the current government in power. The previous day the protests became more violent and during their march a fight broke out and 20 people were killed. In addition, this protest took place in the touristy area of Bangkok, near Koh San Road. We took our chances and got on our flight and arrived in Bangkok and headed to Koh San. Everything seemed ok, except for the pile of rubble and flowers where the protestors had died, but we checked into a hotel a bit off the main road to be safe.
Our arrival also coincided with the Thai New Year Festival which is celebrated with a 3 day water/mud fight. So for 3 full days Dana and I were bombarded with blasts of icy cold water from super soakers or a playful muddy slap to the face. It seemed the Thai people decided to take an intermission from their disagreements and the red shirt ‘rebels’ were running through the streets with water guns with everyone else having a good time.

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