Last week I got to celebrate one of the biggest Thai holidays, Songkran or the Thai New Year, which is based on the Buddhist calendar. Traditionally, Songkran was a holiday to honor and pay respect to elders by blessing them with water that had been poured over a Buddha. However, over the years it has evolved to a country-wide water fight. Now Thais and many foreigners roam around with water guns, ride in the back of trucks with barrels of water, throw buckets, spray with hoses and try and get everyone around them wet. Which actually is a relief since April is the hottest month here so it was a small and fun break from the heat! Throughout various times during the weekend I tried to imagine what it would be like if we did this in America and it just made me laugh. I'm pretty sure people would not be as cool about having complete strangers drench them with water, but hey maybe I'm wrong.
The other amazing thing about Songkran is that if you are a foreigner (farang...as they call us) you stand out in the crowd. And when you stand out in a crowd every single Thai person loves to spray you. And even better is they love to target your face and eyes. Awesome. I mean I didn't mind getting sprayed but when we were with our Thai friends I would be drenched while they were only slightly damp.
Since we just got here we decided instead of going away for Songkran (like most do) we would stay in Bangkok and celebrate. It turned out to be really nice because the majority of people in Bangkok leave and there is no traffic at all (which is a big deal here). Places that normally take you 1 hour to get to suddenly only take about 10 minutes! We had 3 days off of school so we decided to explore the city a little and have some fun with our friends.
We first went downtown where most of the water fights were and had a great time shooting people and trying to avoid getting shot at. The whole time I just felt like a little kid again. I mean what is more fun than having a water fight with a few million people? I definitely got dominated by a truck with a bunch of people spraying freezing cold water on me while we were stuck in traffic...and that was no fun! We also had everyone over to Lonnie's house and had a huge water fight and BBQ with everyone from the church. We got to take river taxi cruise along the Chao Phraya River and saw some more of Bangkok. Then we headed over to one of the malls to a Songkran festival, where they sprayed everyone with foam and we got to go to our first Thai concert! It was a blast and we really enjoyed a few days of relaxation and a much needed break from language. It was pretty much the most fun thing I have done. It was definitely weekends like these when I realized that Thailand is awesome and totally meant for me.
Now for all you people who want to come visit in 2013 although April is hot it would be a really fun time during Songkran. So let me know...limited seating available.
Here are some pics from our weekend
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| songkran festival at the mall. |
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yay for waterfights. so much fun!
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| the foam pit. |
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| this isn't me but it basically happened to me. never thought i would almost choke on foam. |
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| the truck that dominated me. |
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| i would say that kristen definitely has her game face on. |
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| its always important to look good while shooting people with your pink princess gun. |
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| oscar and p'tote (our pastor) |
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| going down with the angry birds water guns. |
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| walker ready to destroy. |
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| poor paul had it coming to him. |
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| the girls. |
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| harry potter pics. and my favorite picture of all time. |
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| can't fight it. |
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| along the Chao Phraya River. |
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| life on the river. |
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| oh hey. |
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| my favorite bridge. |
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| kristin and me. looking fine all the time. or not. but i figured my mom would want to see an actual picture of me. so here it is. love you mom. |
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love the way the light shines on the temples. where there is darkness, let there be light.
ok so who is coming next year? |
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