Last week my family and I celebrated our first Songkran. Unlike most expats (and many Thais as well) who choose to leave the city during this holiday season to escape the street water fights, hot temperatures, talc powder wars, and drunken tourists…WE thought it sounded like fun to stay! We definitely wanted our first Songkran to be here in our new hometown of Bangkok.
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| Why wasn't I invited to the wet t-shirt party??? |
The Songkran festival takes place from April 13th to 15th and is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year. With April being the hottest month of the year, it’s certainly appropriate that getting wet and drenching each other with water is a key element of the Songkran celebration. The throwing of water symbolizes cleansing of the spirit by washing away the sins and evil from the past year, thus allowing for a fresh start to the new year ahead!
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| Scrubbing 'da BUDDHA! |
On the first day of Songkran mommy and daddy loaded up their belongings in Ziplocs and ventured outside [unarmed!] to scope out the festivities. They rounded the first corner by our house and much to their surprise, everything appeared normal. Where was all the splashing?! The fire hoses?! The hoards of kids armed to the teeth with water guns?! The streets were eerily quiet…too quiet.
They barely had enough time to react. A truck whizzed by and everything around them was instantly engulfed in an enourmous wave of water. They had just witnessed their first drive by soaking. The innocent pedestrians walking just a few feet ahead of them had been hit with several buckets of icy cold water, and then sprayed repeatedly with super soakers. Lucky for daddy one of the cute Thai girls that had just been soaked with water was wearing a white t-shirt. I don’t blame him for sneaking a quick peak :)
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| If you want to stay dry, avoid riding a motorcycle! |
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| Dancing in the streets :) |
Mommy and daddy continued to walk towards the BTS station, not knowing how much longer they'd remain dry. Their first encounter with street partiers was a pleasant one. They passed their favorite barbecue chicken restaurant (which was closed for the holiday of course) and were kindly greeted on the sidewalk by an adorable, young Thai girl rocking out to Lady GaGa. She splashed their hands with water, wiped their cheeks with talc powder, giggled, and then danced away. It was simple, sincere, and in all aspects of the word...special. Mommy and daddy walked away unable to hide their smiles!
Up ahead in the distance they spotted a small crowd of people showering each other with buckets of water. There was no way to avoid getting wet here. As they approached the group daddy pointed at mommy and gave the group a big "OK". Their eyes lit up with glee and they completely doused mommy with water. She wasn’t even mad! It was so scorching-hot out it felt absolutely amazing!!! Daddy’s turn was up next, and mommy made sure they got him EXTRA wet.
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| Going straight for mommy's goodies! A cup of water to the crotch! |
After several rounds of street water splashing, mommy and daddy finally made it to the grocery store. They stood at the entrance-sopping wet. As mommy rung out the water from her shirt they were worried they might be turned away. Of course not! Anything goes in Thailand! They proceeded to go about their shopping routine, sloshing and slipping down every aisle.
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| BRING IT ON!!! |
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| Immediately regretting his decision! |
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| Let it RAIN! |
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| SOAKraned!!!! |
On the second day of Songkran mommy and daddy managed to stay dry. They scurried from destination to destination while enjoying watching the water wars from within the safety of their taxi. They were saving up for day number three, the official first day of the new year!
On the third day of Songkran (sounds like a screwed up Christmas song, doesn't it?!) mommy and daddy loaded up their squirt guns and hit the streets. They weren’t messing around anymore and headed straight to Silom, the heart of the city where the water fights are the biggest. And when I say BIG I mean it--On Wednesday the 13th of April, 2011, The Guinness World Record for the world's largest water gun fight was officially BROKEN!
They were completely overwhelmed by the chaotic beauty of the entire event. It was amazing seeing everyone having so much fun, acting like kids again just for the day. They quickly got sucked into the madness. Within minutes they were dripping wet and covered from head to toe in white talc powder. Farangs (foreigners) are a key target, especially blonde ones. For every hit daddy took, mommy took four!
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Taking one for the blonde team!
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The pictures speak for themselves!!
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| The traditional talc powder is white. Of course mommy got PINK! |
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| Sala DAAAAENNNNNG Daddy!!!! |
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| The streets were flooding! |
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| Thainie Cutie! |
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| Spreading the PINK LOVE! |
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| Mommy getting her schmear on! |
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Mentholated Talc Powder
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| Thailand - The Land of Smiles :) |
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I'm smiling, but I'm still going to have to shoot ya!
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| Apparently this was the best Thai street omelet ever (Kai Jeow)! I prefer my eggs scrambled, without hot sauce, but that's just me!!! |
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| He may be cute, but he's got a mean squirt!! |
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| Samesies!!! |
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| Tuk tuk tuk all the way home!! |
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| Mommy has gone RAMBO! |
I’m sure you’re all wondering if I participated in the water festivities…you bet I did!! I’m definitely no weenie! Hmmmm....I guess in this situation, I was proud to be a wet and wild weenie! I couldn’t do much splashing since it’s hard to pull the trigger on a squirt gun with my little paws, but I did get wet and I took a few hard hits in the process. I even got talced on my face. I definitely think I earned some Songkran barking rights. Even though the mentholated talc has a refreshing smell, after returning home from our Songkran excursion, mommy and daddy made sure to give me a nice, long bath. Now I’m a cleanie weenie, and ready to start the New Year off fresh! Suk San Wan Songkran (สุขสันต์วันสงกรานต - Happy Songkran everybody!)
