Songkran Water Festival 2009, Isaan Thailand.

Well Thailand’s biggest and most celebrated festival has begun, that being Songkran or the Water Festival. The Thai New Year is always something to experience. I have been through 5 now and this is my 6th.

During Songkran people usually wear bright coloured clothes; some of the more exhibitionists will wear white that obviously becomes see-through when wet. To get into Songkran you have to enjoy water, also being touched by complete strangers, being told that ‘I love you’ by someone you have never seen before, asked a million times ‘where do you come from?’, Also ‘Welcome to Thailand’, but most of all having powder, which sometimes burns depending on the brand rubbed onto the cheeks of your face while being wished ‘Happy New year.’

Oh, also you will be offered drinks, be it beer or whiskey by revelers and you really shouldn’t refuse, simply take whatever is offered to you and pretend to drink as I do and then pass on to someone else to drink. This is better than offending the person. I think Thais believe most foreigners drink.

If the any of the above worries you than don’t come to Thailand for Songkran. Now we were in Songkran mood this year thanks to my mate Big John. When he was wandering around a local market he stumbled on these lovely dresses and knew that these were perfect for some old tarts like us. I have to admit we are bloody ugly women and not much better as men.

For this report I had to stay in the car to get some photos before I could start having Songkran fun. Now the sight of a car full of farang (Thai for foreigner) men wearing dresses with lipstick smudged all over their faces is bewildering and also entertaining for young kids. This small girl is trying to work out what the hell she is looking at.

Songkran is about family fun. Families travel from all over Thailand to get home to celebrate. In many places you will see little kids having a great time with mum, dad, grandparents, cousins and so forth. It is pretty heartwarming to see.

This is how people ask you to slow down and maybe stop for a few seconds. This is Ubon Ratchathani’s main road. People will set up right on the edge and then have water fights with passing pick-up trucks. Most people drive very carefully about the city, there are always a few fools who drive like idiots but thankfully they are few and far between.

It is funny the effects seeing farangs have on young Thais, especially men dressed as women with large breasts. Also when they realised one was in the front of the truck with a camera.

This young teen girl wishes me Happy New Year by tipping and rubbing some water on the window.

This is common, especially with young guys together. They will walk out or dance on the road to get you to stop. They will then tip water over everyone, offer some drinks and put powder on peoples’ faces. This is why you have to drive responsibly during Songkran as anything can and will happen.

Songkran is about getting wet. I have written about the Songkran tradition before here or a brief overview of what it is about. Most people now just enjoy what Songkran has become with modernisation.

The Water Festival is a bit of relief as it is starting to heat up here in Thailand and the often very cool water that has been chilled from blocks of solid ice. When this extra cool water hits you, you lose your breath and your body gets a good shock.

Many places close for the Songkran Festival but people still need to eat and drink. Food vendors set up all over the place selling food to the hungry water throwers. Nearly all people respect that these people are working and do not throw water over them or their food.

This is a popular weapon of young Thais, a simple water pistol.

On the back of your trucks you store your water in any sort of container you can use. We had three on our truck. There are places scattered about the place that refill your water containers for free, some others charge 10 to 20 Baht. This is at a temple and is free.

Some of the kids playing Songkran are tiny. This boy is just bigger than the water container.

Here the young boy has some Thai teenage girls who have stopped to put powder on his face.

I love seeing the faces of people hit by the cool water or just seeing farang. Young kids eyes and faces light up and ready themselves for battle.

And this photo I will leave you with. It’s a small Thai boy standing on the edge of the road by himself. In the background a women is laughing at the sight of the farangs. Not long after this the little fellow was drenched and his face just lit up when he seen who had done this. It was pretty priceless.

Sadly with Songkran also brings a huge death toll on Thai roads. A total of 139 deaths and 1,718 injuries from 1,605 road accidents nationwide was reported for the first three days of the Songkran holiday's "seven dangerous days". The main cause so far has been speeding on country roads. Sadly this will rise a lot higher over the next few days.

So the first day of Songkran was a lot of fun. There were no problems at all and I didn’t see any trouble. All the people seemed to be having a great time. I have taken a lot more pictures than posted and will try and get them up on my Flickr page in the coming days.

Today I took video footage and hope to have that cut together and will have online sometime next week. I will post more pictures over the coming days.

Brunty