Songkran

I think we may have experienced the best holiday ever created. Picture an MSU vs. U of M tailgate in the middle of summer, with twice as many people, that lasts three days...and then add thousands of water guns. That is Songkran, the Thai new year, and it is awesome. We decided to spend Songkran in Chiang Mai.  A lot of other people from our program were heading up there too, so it was something like a reunion for all of us. We met with everyone on the first day of the celebrations and it was a crazy, wet, blur from there.

Songkran originally started as a time of cleansing in the Buddhist religion.  A statue of the Buddha would be paraded through the town and people put water on it as spiritual/literal cleansing.  As you can imagine, over the years the tradition grew and grew and eventually turned into the Songkran that happens today. During the three days of the holiday people of all ages line the streets and spray water at anyone that passes by.  Groups will ride around in trucks and throw water at the people on the streets also.  It was such a good feeling to shoot the Tuk Tuk drivers right in the face as they drove by.  It felt like payback for all the times we've been ripped off by them over the last few months.

People lined the river all throughout the city to refill their guns and buckets:

Once you're sopping wet, getting even more wet isn't that big of deal, so getting sprayed again isn't so bad.  But the Thai people figured out a way to take it a step further by putting huge chunks of ice into their water....and getting splashed with ice cold water is just not something you can get used to.

My favorite part about the holiday is the kids.  When else can you squirt adults with water all day long and not get in trouble. Even little toddlers would come up and spray you and would just laugh and laugh when you got them back.  We got surprised attacked a few times by kids hiding in the alleys and doorways.

Unfortunately we couldn't get a lot of pictures because we didn't want the camera to get ruined. But here's a video that gives you a small taste of what it was like: Songkran video.

After three days of being perpetually soaked, we were ready for Songkran to be over (see Cyrus' face above).  After the holiday, we traveled to Chiang Rai, another popular northern town, and then eventually traveled onward to Laos (which Cyrus will describe for you next).

Happy Thai New Year to everyone!
Paige and Cyrus