The Water Festival, Thai style

There are days when my life is just so ridiculously fun, yesterday was one of them. I joined the revelry of celebrating Thai New Year, Songkren, the Water Festival. Marking the beginning of the rainy season,(not a drop so far) the entire country breaks out water cannons, buckets and anything that will deploy water. Armed with my waterproof phone bag and a huge water gun i jumped on the motorbike to head to town. No sooner than i turned on the main drag i was drenched by a group manning a large water reservoir. This continued the ten miles to Chalong. The streets were lined with people, water guns, huge reservoirs of water. i even saw fire trucks filling these containers.

i joined my friends at Au Chalong and spent the entire day drenching passersby and getting drenched and laughing until it hurt! the original intent of the water was to show respect for elders by pouring scented water on them, and a semblance of that remains, but mostly just good “clean” fun. http://www.phuket.com/festival/songkran.htm and http://www.rawaimuaythai.com/sonkran-festival.htm tell the story.

so again i am in a culture i adore, the customs and traditions fit me to a tea. The Thai have taken s sacred festival kept its roots and made it so much fun. I love the Land of Smiles.