Songkran

Today is Songkran - the Thai New Year, which is celebrated by nation-wide water fight revelry that goes on for three days.

We were "lucky" enough to be stuck in Bangkok over Songkran two years ago, where the crowds are phenomenal and the people bordering on crazy. It was pretty traumatic for Littletree, who had a deep fear of water, and got hysterical if so much as a drop got splashed on her, and not to mention she doesn't like crowds, or people touching her - the essence of Songkran.

This time around, I opted to stay a few extra days here in Phuket, in the relative safety of Chrysalis' secluded garden, but Littletree was keen to go out and see what it would be like.

Not willing to brave driving to one of the populated public areas where the crowds and craziness would be going on, I walked to the end of our lane with Littletree, toting her little watergun that she bought with her pocket money last week.

At the corner of our lane we found a small group of local women and children standing with big barrels of water, splashing the cars and bikes driving past.

Littletree was quite shy of them, but they warmly invited us to join them and gave Littletree a chair to stand on in the shade. Slowly, slowly, she warmed up to them, and before long, Littletree was having a ball, throwing water everywhere, drenched as can be!

We had a great time, throwing water around and getting soaked

The process was waiting for a truck or bike to approach, grab bowl-fulls of water...

Run up and SPLASH!

Littletree had a ball!

 

Here's a short video I took:

Finally we strolled home, sopping wet :) Tomorrow will be Littletree's birthday; she's so excited!