Happy Thai New Year!

For those of you counting, I just celebrated my 3rd New Year's celebration since 2007 - the first being the traditional "watch the ball drop in Time Square" New Year, the second being Chinese New Year, when the city was painted red and we enjoyed an evening of Chinese food and streets closed to traffic. But, I must admit this 3rd celebration was my favorite - Thai New Year, known as Song Kran. This holiday centers around the tradition of blessing your elders by pouring a little water over their hands, and giving them flowers. Traditionally Thais believe that this act causes evil spirits to go away, and also pours out blessings on others. Well, this tradition has evolved into an all out water fight....where the city spends 3 days "blessing" each other with water guns and buckets full of water. In Udon, most of the vehicles are motorcycles, and most of the other vehicles are pick up trucks...so people load large garbage pails full of water into the back of their pick ups, pile on 8-10 friends and family members, and drive around....throwing water on the many other people piled into pick up trucks...and the many motorcylces manuevering thru the streets.

There no way I can really describe this event in a way that does it justice. But, I spent 2 days, about 4 hours each day, joining in the fun. We had 10 in a pick up truck, 3 huge containers of water, a few small buckets and tupperware containers to scoop the water out with, and some water guns. We drove around and threw water on everyone we could....as traffic stopped, we engaged in longer fights with those trucks or people nearest our car. If things got really slow, we even got out of the truck and ran around splashing water on people. It was fun to get wet, but the craze this year is to drop big blocks of ice into your garbage can, causing the water to be VERY cold. The end result is a loud squeal or a deep "OH!!!" from those that are hit with this freezing cold water, apparently adding to the fun. Those without pick up trucks had buckets of water outside of their homes, sported large water guns, or simply used their hoses. Those without access to water walked around with large bottles of scented, menthol baby powder, which they (usually) gently patted onto your cheeks, wishing you a Happy New Year.

After about 30 minutes...our water filled garbage cans were empty, and we were forced to sit as helpless victims as others continued to get us wet. We headed to one of the lakes in the city, which used huge hoses about 5 inches wide to pump large quantities of dirty lake water into our garbage cans at a rapid pace. So, with our arsenal once again full....we were off to play again. As we drove throught the streets, I noticed that while about 95% of the people were involved in the water fight....there seemed to be those that were untouched. I tried to notice what the "unwritten rules" were that protected these few from getting drenched. It seems that those selling food, those who were very old and looked grumpy and not dressed to get wet, as well as some on motorbikes who really looked like they were going to work, were not bothered by the water. Thai people are really very nice!

Here are some pictures of the fun:







Although those with more energy than I continued to water fight on the 3rd day...I took a break and collapsed on my sofa for the afternoon. It's amazing how the hot sun, cold (dirty) water, menthol powder, and sitting on the edge of a pick up truck can wear you out. Happy New Year!