Before I tell you what we got up to yesterday I will tell you a bit about the rituals associated with New Year.
The Thai New Year, also known as Songkran, is celebrated every year from the 13th to the 15th of April and is the time when Thai people return home to visit family and to pay respect to the elders around the neighbourhood (Moon headed off to Issan on Thursday). Buddah images in the temples are cleaned with water and perfume as it is believed that this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year and, in some cities, the statues are a
ctually paraded through the streets so that people can wash them as they pass by (I'd like to see them try that with the solid gold one in China Town!!). Apparently it is also common for people to carry handfuls of sand to their local temple in order to recompense for the dirt that they have carried away on their feet during the rest of the year - The sand is then piled into large tiered piles and decorated (a bit like a big sandcastle). Song
kran is a time for cleaning and renewal and water is very heavily associated with it. Originally pouring a small amount of water on other people's hands was done as a sign of respect but now the most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water - people actually roam the streets with bowls of water, water pistols or even a garden hose, and drench each other and everyone else. (Can you guess what we did yet??)
My god we had so much fun yesterday!! We headed out in the early afternoon for some lunch (We had gone round to Georgie and Ben's for dinner the night before and it turned into a bit of a late one) and were soaked before we had even got the the BTS (Skytrain). We were passing Time Square when we saw a small group of very wet children who's faces lit up when they saw us!! The bowls that were in their hands were dunked into a huge barrel of water and we were ambushed!! We had lunch by the window of the restaurant and we just could not stop laughing - There were people walking along the pavement absolutely soaked to the skin, people chasing each other firing water pistols and pickup trucks going past full of people all armed with water pistols firing at anything and everything that moved. We had heard that Khao San Road was THE place to go so we headed home, got changed, filled our water pistols and headed out.
The security guards at the apartment block next to ours stopped us (I forgot to mention that people also mix plaster with water to make a paste - Monks use this when giving blessings so it is considered good luck to
have this put on your face) and made hand prints on our cheeks and poured some water over our hands. We then sneaked past the dancing, water throwing people on the corner of our Soi by cutting through the Sukhumvit Centre (Figured we wouldn't be able to get a taxi if we were soaked) and were standing watching the fun when suddenly a waitress with a water pistol opened the door of the restaurant we were standing next to and fired!! When we turned round there was a giggling gaggle of waiters and waitresses at the door
Anyway, we got a taxi and headed over to Khao San Road - The place was absolutely heaving and we ended up getting dropped off miles away from where we wanted to be!! The main road had been blocked to stop cars getting in and all we could see was a river of people obviously heading for the same place we were. It was absolutely brilliant - the entire street was lined with people (young and old) with barrels of
water, hoses and water pistols and we were absolutely drenched within seconds of getting out the taxi!!. (The photo on the right is Chris firing at a girl as she is firing at me - her boyfriend is doing the weird fingers thing). We had people sneaking up behind us and pouring bowls of water down our backs to which we would retaliate and fire back with our water pistols, there were others that would squirt you with their water pistol and then there would be a bit of a chase as we tried to get them back and there was obviously some kudos in putting the plaster mix on the face of the Farangs as practically everyone who was walking past would come over and smear the stuff on us. There were stalls selling water so that you could top up your gun, there were people dancing, there were people dressed up, everyone
was soaking wet and laughing their heads off. We ended up staying for a good few hours before calling it quits and making our way home in a Tuk Tuk (people were still spraying each other whilst in their Tuk Tuk's and our driver got water thrown at him whilst we were
waiting for the lights to change. (We took the photo's when we got home - You can't really see just how wet we were!!). The entire city had turned into one giant water fight and it was absolutely brilliant!!!
We had talked about going up to Chaing Mai this weekend but couldn't really ask Georgie and Ben to look after the cats two weekends in a row so we decided to spend the weekend in Bangkok. So on Saturday, after a ridiculously long breakfast/lunch at Crepes and Co, we headed over to Khao San Road which is the backpacker area of Bangkok. We had such 
a giggle - we sat at The Buddy Restaurant and Bar and people watched......the sights you see!!! (We didn't manage to get a photo of the punks or the man with feathers in his ears but did manage to capture this little beauty!!). Then I nearly fell off my chair laughing......there was a noise that sounded a bit like an ambulance siren and suddenly about 10 Thais pushing various food carts ran past us which was funny enough in itself but then Derek commented 'I wonder if that's the traffic 
police' and sure enough about two minutes later a van marked Traffic Police drove past!! (the vendors came back about five minutes later but we all agreed that it was very nice of the police to give them some advance warning!!). After that we went and had some dinner then went to the Hippie Bar - it was a good night!!
to the pub and Jo, Tracey and I went to Khun Dao's for a fittin
g. That evening, in our new togs, we headed out to Mambo to see the Lady Boy show......IT'S NOT FAIR!!! God those guys are gorgeous!! (ok, not all of them as you will see from the photo of Derek but most of them!!) Chris and I had seen them before in Manchester with Tom but we had 
not been to the show here - It was fab!!! I don't know what was more entertaining....the show or the look on Derek's face!! We got some great pictures as you can see!!
