Our friend Tanya Mau, who has spent a lot of time in Thailand, contacted us recently in email and said this "YOU MUST TRY AND VISIT THE SONGKRAN FESTIVAL (water festival for the Thai New Year) this week."  So we were sure to heed her advice.

So, we struck out on the scooter yesterday not knowing what to expect.  Within about 2 minutes of leaving the resort, we were both completely soaked, head to toe, including the scooter.

Songkran Day is the Thai New Years celebration that has roots in using water as a symbol of cleansing for the new year.  From our prespective, Songkran is the National Water Fight Day.  All along every road, there are people waiting with huge tubs of water, ready to drench anyone who comes by. This makes the normal 40kph road a wet, splashing and noisy parking lot that is more like a party than a road.

 It makes for an incredibly fun day and a chance to interact with the locals who love nothing more than to drench a Farang (white foreigner).  Some approaching vehicles would see us and rally the troops to cries of "FARANG! FARANG! FARANG!"  We were targets, willingly. Everyone, young, old, male, female, got into the action and no one was spared.  All in good clean fun.

 Of course, we had our own defense...

 And I sprang to action when the time came...

 

 But found that we were slightly over-powered...

I've got to hand it to some of the Songkran innovators, who get giant blocks of ice and put them into the water barrels, making ice cold water that is a startling surprise.  We're both thankful to have been a part of the celebration- and that we have a Pentax Option WP- a waterproof camera- without which these pictures would not be possible.