Happy New Years!

Songran is officially here. We’re celebrating the Thai new years right now, which is every year from the 13th through the 15th of April. It’s one of the hottest times of the year for Thailand and pretty much everyone across the country gets really excited for the holiday. It’s been in the upper nineties with the “feels like” temp up in the hundreds for the last couple weeks. I believe it’s been cooler here in Thailand this year so I’m thankful for that. This is the most anticipated holiday in Thailand and most of the people go home to see their families if they can get away from working.

The new years is pretty much celebrated with a nation wide water fight that lasts three days…only it’s more like 4 days this years because the holiday officially started on Sunday, but Saturday was really stinkin hot. Not only do you have people splashing you with water everywhere you go, but you also have a muddy mix of talcum powder and water that people spread across your face. It’s quite messy around here. Also, everyone wears Hawaiian shirts…I’m not sure why, but it is a nice touch.

Sunday we ran into one of our Thai friends while we were on our way to Bangkok to celebrate, and Beer (the name of our friend who is the staff coordinator for CCD) said that here family had a pickup truck and asked if we wanted to go around town in the back of it. Of course we do. We had about 12 people in the back of this truck (basically it’s a ford ranger super cab) along with a trash can full of water, some buckets and super soakers. We would drive up the roads and people would stop the truck by dancing in front of it while we would engage their friends in a water fight. Then we would drive along to the next roadside party. Because of the traffic jams we didn’t get home till around 10 that night.
Last night we went into the city to Silom Center. I had stayed in a Christian guesthouse in the area a couple times before when I was here. The area looked like times square on new years with the addition of water and white mud everywhere. We walked up and down the street for a couple hours smearing the mud on people’s faces and getting soaked. There wasn’t too many white people around which made me enjoy it more. Getting a cab back at 12:30 at night was difficult since we were very messy and had to go to the outskirts of the city, but the 2 Thai friends we were with helped us out with that. One more day of water fights to go until everything should return to normal for a while. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of this holiday, but it’s hard enough just trying to keep my money dry when I go outside.