Thailand - Ao Nang/Songkran

With insane hangovers in tow, Alex and I made the trek back to the coast. Neither of us were in the mood for doing anything more than lying around the entire day, so while he slept it off, I lay out on the beach for a few hours. Working off those hangovers is hard work. It was well-needed rest because, although we didn’t know it at the time, the following day would be a busy one.

Since my arrival, everyone had been touting Songkran (Buddhist New Year) as one of the best events in Thailand. I had no idea when it was or what to expect, but all I heard anyone ever say was “giant water fight.” I was sold. When we got up that morning, we noticed a few people with water guns chasing each other around. There was also the occasional family sitting on the street with a hose and bucket of water. It didn’t take long for us to realize today was Songkran. We haggled for the biggest water guns we could find and joined the fray.

For Thai Buddhists, the ritual of cleansing their statues with water has gradually transformed into dousing others with water as a way to escape the heat. April is a notoriously hot month and getting soaked with ice cold water is a highly welcome feeling.

We wandered up and down the streets hosing down anyone between the ages of 2 and 90. Periodically we would stop at someone’s storefront to refill our guns from their water source. The only cost being a bucket of ice-cold water poured down our backs. By noon, everyone had come out of the woodworks to join the festivities. The streets were brimming with people and most storefronts had stopped selling and started dousing. It was an all out war between locals and tourists roaming the streets, entire families in the back of pickup trucks and the either well prepared or otherwise idiotic motorcyclist.

The crowds didn’t begin to die down until the sun set nearly seven hours later. It was an exhausting but highly entertaining day. I felt like I was seven years old again.

The following day we were back on Rai Ley to meet up with Jess and Martha. Like nearly every other day the past two weeks, we did little more than lie in the sand for hours on end. We had such a good time that we decided to move on together the following day. Our destination: Koh Phi Phi. The “picturesque” location they filmed Leo’s titanic disaster The Beach.

Keep in mind those quotations.