What a great way to end a fantastic vacation! When we booked this trip, we had no idea we would be here for Songkran. When we ask what Songkran was, the locals informed us it is the Thai New Year, a day for throwing water on each other! This is done not only to cool each other off since April is the hottest month in Thailand, but it is a sign of respect; ”The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddha’s for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder." Over the years, it has been commercialized, as with most holidays today.
For us, 6 American's visiting Thailand during Songkran, it meant a big ass water fight, that was so incredibly fun my kids have decided we need to bring it to America.
We hopped in a cab and headed down to Khao San Road to celebrate Songkran with the locals.
Rewind: let me back up just a little. This was the day we were leaving to head back to Korea. I picked out the clothes we were going to wear for the day, these were the same clothes we would be wearing on the airplane. I thought we would get a *little* wet and our clothes would dry, so I packed the rest of our things. I had no idea the lengths Thai's went to on Songkran to get everyone wet, did I say wet? I meant drenched. Luckily we had a late checkout since we were on a midnight flight.
OK - back to the cab. On the way to Khao San Road, we noticed people had water hoses, buckets, BIG water guns, but the most impressive thing people had were huge garbage cans filled with *ICE* water! While riding in the cab with our windows rolled up, we noticed people in tuk-tuks and people on motorcycles getting soaked! Then it happened. We were at a stop sign, someone opened the cab door, threw a huge bucket of water on Hubby, slapped some mud type stuff on his face (we heard this is for good luck), said something in Thai, shut the door and off we went. It was great!
Buying water guns....
This girl is filling up her container - you could pay her 100 baht to fill your water gun, and hope she didn't drench you in the process.
Here we are trying to take a little break from the insanity.
Maybe this should be our Christmas card....
A few more fun shots from Songkran....
Needless to say, we could not wear those clothes to the airport. We still had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport, so we tried to do a little shopping, but found most things closed because of the holiday. I loved the little bags of drinks here...
After an unsuccessful shopping trip we decide to head back to the hotel and do a little swimming, and it is a good thing we did because this is the day Boy 2 learn to swim ALL BY HIMSELF!
Did I mention how much I LOVED this pool?!?! :-)
This was the perfect end to a magnificent vacation.
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