Sukhothai

After monkey madness, it was time for a little water madness. The Thais, like other South and Southeast Asian countries, celebrate Songkran. In Thailand, it is also known as the Thai New Year and is celebrated on April 13. It is a national holiday that the government nicely extended for a week (April 9 to the 16th), but the fun, for most youngins' and foreigners anyways, is that Songkran is also celebrated by splashing water on people, usually starting on the 13th, and lasting until the 16th.

As a symbol of renewal in Buddhism, water is splashed on statues of Buddha for good luck. For most of the younger people though - kids to young adults - it's all about the water fights - fun, celebratory mutual splashing. There is a lot more to Songkran, and a deeper history but I'll leave it up to you the reader to do a deeper dive if you so choose.

Groups and families gather on the sides of roads in cities, towns, and all places in between. They fill up buckets, barrells, small pools, whatever can hold lots of water, and arm themselves with small buckets they use to throw water at people, and all manor of water guns. People who walk, ride or drive by are all targets so you better be ready to get splashed! Those who drive by are often in trucks and they too have all sorts of water containers, buckets, and water guns...and the mayhem begins! Another cool part of the festival is Thais applying powder or a powdery paste to people's faces as they go by. This appears to be a symbol of friendship and good wishes and we happily accepted when approached and asked if they could apply it to us.

Timing being what it was, we were fortunate - because trust me, being splashed with water when 40+ degrees outside is amazing - to be in one town, Sukhothai, at the beginning of the festival, and another town, Chiangkhan, for the last days of it. In Sukhothai we hung out with the kids of the wonderful manager or owner of the guesthouse we were staying at (Smilingface Guesthouse) on a busy corner of the old town and got right into it. The kids seemed to take particular pleasure in dunking Gi and I over and over again with pails of water. I loved seeing the pure pleasure on the faces of the young kids, and the mischievous grins of the older ones as they doused each other, and us, over and over. Great fun!Read more