Happy Songkran!

On 13 April it was the Thai New Year, so most of Bangkokians went on holiday, and those that remained turned the streets one huge water fight. Most of the shops closed for once!

The first thing to do is acquire water pistols. To celebrate Songkran, you need to be armed! There are little groups of people - particularly kids of course - with every possible kind of water throwing implement: hoses, pistols, buckets... The Thais also smear white paste on your face, as some kind of blessing - but it gets absolutely everywhere and tastes disgusting.

We went to join in the celebration in a Buddhist temple. Everyone was throwing water over each other, and quite a few people were drinking beer. People calmed down for the more religious parts of the ceremony, and queued up with bowls of water scented with flower petals, to pour over the statue of buddha and the local monks.

Then after that, they turned on a soundsystem and blasted out Thai luuk thung (Thai comedy country) music and everyone started dancing! After a bit more partying, the monks announced the prayers and everyone sat down to join them.

In the Northwest centre of the city, hundreds of thousands of people were going crazy with their water pistols and white paste. Particularly mean people throw iced water. It was like an extremely wet Notting Hill Carnival minus the Jamaican soundsystems. People dance and singing along to loud music - from pop to hiphop and weird Thai gettotech - blasting from stereos and bars all around. The party carries on until very late at night...

Pictures by E. Meleisa