Songkran

On Saturday the 14th, my roommates, myself and a friend ventured out to the "old city" to take part in the Thai New Year celebration, Songkran. You can see my posts; Prayer Walk, The last day of School before April Break, and learn some more history about the moat and Songkran...someday I WILL learn how to tag my posts! 

Songkran started mainly as a way to bless your family, etc. You would pour water on their hands or back and bless them. People still go back to their homes to spend time with their families and bless them, but it also has turned into a countrywide water fight from April 13th-15th every year. Chiang Mai is known to be the best place to celebrate Songkran.

We decided to be smart and NOT bring our cameras (wish I had a water proof one) so we don't have any of our own pictures. I went on the internet and found some good pictures that show what it is like around the moat for 3+ days.

Water guns and buckets...and wet streets!

Bumper-to-bumper traffic.....and crowded sidewalks....

One of the many reasons we pray a lot for this festival...
buckets of water thrown at motorbikes driving down the road can very easily equal accidents....

buckets of water...

The back of pick-up trucks are full of people and garbage cans of COLD water

We were completely wet within minutes of getting to the moat.....

Big blocks of ice are sold on the side of the road to be put into the garbage cans...
Can you say "ICE COLD WATER"

This is how we and most other people got water....bring a bucket with a string on it...
throw it into the moat....pull up your full bucket of dirty moat water....
Since traffic is pretty much stopped...people in the trucks will get out and fill their garbage cans with moat water as well...
then they just add ICE!

It is the hottest time of year here in the 90s/100s all day long and well into the evenings, so the water actually feels quite nice! We spent about 2-3 hours walking around the moat during the hottest part of the day and actually got a little cold at times:) Most of the people are nice as they dump water on you and wish you a Happy New Year and you just smile, say thank you, and wish them a Happy New Year as well!