Songkran Festival

Thai New Year has arrived, which means...water! Yes, for a whole week the entire city has license to throw water on anyone else. Not only that, down at the moat, the whole city shows up for water fight of gigantic proportions. The moat is just that, an actual moat. The old city used to be surrounded by a high wall with four gates and a moat. Now all that is left of the wall are the gates and corners, but the moat survives. April 13 means that it is time to climb into your truck with about ten of your closest friends and relatives, grab your water guns and any large bucket and drive down to the moat. Some choose to also cover their car in baby powder mixed with liquid dye and don a Halloween type mask/costume. Once at the moat cars move at about 2 miles per hour as the occupants toss water onto other trucks, cars, pedestrians, virtually anything is fair game. Water is pulled out of the moat and huge blocks of ice are sold by the water. We stood on the sidewalk pulling water out of the moat to dump on whoever thought it would be fun to dump water on us. Amy and I had to work as a team as we had to ward off attacks from both the front (all the vehicles) and the back (other pedestrians). I have to say that is must be one of the best ideas ever created. The days have been so hot and just sitting in the heat is pretty miserable. After you are completely soaked from head to toe the temperature is much more bearable.

The fight is not contained to the moat although that is where most of the people go. On any street, even out of the city, you will see people standing on the side of the road with their buckets and hoses throwing water on anyone who passes by. This afternoon we walked down the road aways to our local outdoor tri-weekly market. As we exited our neighborhood we were doused by some cute children. A little farther down the road a passing truck doused us. At the start of the market we were yet again doused by some teenagers hanging out by the road. Oddly enough the prevailing sensation was happiness that one finally does not feel so hot!

Some memories from the day: