Get Wet At Songkran Celebration in Thailand

I guess that's how we looked like getting splashed from bystanders

We arranged our trip to Thailand to coincide with the Thai new year celebration Songkran. What I didn’t know was Songkran was such a huge celebration there for the local and of course for the visitors like us.

We were in Chiang Mai on the first day of new year.  The biggest mall there (Maya) had set up this huge stage along with huge screen and was testing their sound systems getting ready for the celebration. At the same time, the hotel at the catty corner already started the celebration with loud music blaring and a crowd of hundreds of people dancing and getting sprayed with water coming out of a hose every so often.

Good thing I was still inside when I took this photo

The next day we all gathered at our friend’s cousin's house to get ready for the water war. The cousin, John has put up a huge drum filled with water along with little buckets and a few water guns on the back of his truck. We were all geared up with our Hawaiian shirt – that’s another Thai new year tradition. I wanted to say that we couldn’t all fit at the back of his truck but the truth was it was like the hottest time of the day with temperature like 100F. So me and hubby gladly stayed in the front seats cooled with AC.

Buckets of water enough to clean our truck's windows :)

We made a stop to get ice for our water drum and then off we went to Little Pattaya which was this area by the river where people gather for picnic. On the way there our comrades at the back of the car were pounded by buckets of water that came from the passing trucks and bystanders. Some of those bystanders had set up a water hose and seriously our dingy water guns couldn’t be compared to those.

Don't mess with this girl, looked like she'll get you wet with that bucket of water she had

By the time we got to Little Pattaya, those people on the back of the truck were soaking wet and shivering because just like us, other trucks were using ice water as well. Good thing the sun was sunny and weather was soo hot that by the time we were done with our picnic, everyone was dry again. Or in my case was sweaty.

Our big group picture before we went out and got soaking wet

By then it was around 4 and I was ready to have some fun and getting sprayed. I intended to take videos of the ride on the truck but with water coming at all different direction, having it accomplished was impossible. By sun set, we were all soaking wet and screaming for John the driver to call it a day. I could only say that I was glad that it was heat wave that day otherwise I would have caught cold or pneumonia from the ice cold water.