Bangkok Part 2

I mentioned in the previous post that we arrived in Thailand on Thai New Year known as Songkran.  One of the traditions is to throw water on others.  This originated from a part of the religious ceremony where people will cleanse their Buddha statues by gently throwing water on them.  This then transitioned to throwing water on people to wash away the bad and to smear chalk on someone's face as a blessing.  This further devolved into the largest city wide water fight you can ever imagine.  The best part is that Thai new year falls at the end of April which is the end of their hottest season, so it was quite refreshing to get soaked after walking around for a couple hours in 95 degree weather.

This is a shot from the Tuk Tuk on the way to one of the main areas.  You can see the look in the eye of the little girl as these kids have this corner staked out shooting water (mostly at tourists) at passing Tuk Tuks.

 This is a pickup truck full of kids and buckets of water roaming the streets looking for victims (mostly tourists)

 This was the entry way to one of the main areas of celebration.

 And a few of the people covered in chalk.  Laura was a popular target for chalk from the locals, but not a lot of people had the courage to smear it on me.  She ended up getting her face covered pretty quickly.  Luckily I had packed a handkerchief and we were quickly doused with water along the way that washed most of it off.

 Laura headed into battle.  The water guns cost us about 3 dollars a piece, but we quickly upgraded later on in the day.  Thank goodness we were warned and had packed everything in ziplock bags inside a water proof bag before we headed in.

 We ended up walking up and down the street being attacked by the locals.  They would setup a cooler in front of a store front and fill it with ice.  They would sell you water to fill up your guns for about 20 cents, but mostly take buckets and toss the ice cold water onto tourists walking by.  You can see Laura getting attacked by the group setup across the street.

 We eventually found a bar where we set up shop to be attackers rather than victims.  We made a group of friends with some folks from Switzerland, Holland, and some African nation that I didn't understand.  We would run out as a group and attack the group across the street and any one that shot into our bar.

 Soaked to the bone and having a blast.

 The battle continued on into the night and likely until dawn.

 On the way out we stopped by a random noodle cart and had a bowl of soup that Laura thought was one of the best meals we had on the trip.  It took most of the next couple of days for our clothing to dry out after the first day, but was an absolute blast.  We were so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit during Songkran.