It was the start of the Thai New Years, Songkran today so “O” who runs the Longtail bungalows we are staying in asked if we wanted to go into town with him to take part in their New Years Festival which runs from 13 – 15 April. On Thailand New Year’s Day, Thais pray to the Buddha, clean temples and houses, give offerings to the monks and sprinkle scented water on elders as a mark of respect. The pouring of water is symbolic of the cleansing of the spirit, mind and body. The water is also supposed to wash away bad luck.
This has evolved over the years and the younger generation now have full on water fights. People stand on the side of roads with huge water drums or hose pipes and spray passers by. People also drive around on the back of trucks throwing water on people they pass. This is what we did. We took a massive dustbin and filled it with water, strapped it to the back of “O’s” pickup and headed off with our buckets in hand. We were joined by an American couple in their 40’s, Belinda and Brian and a German girl in her 20’s, Julie. It was so much fun! We sprayed loads of people on the way and got sprayed loads so by the time we got to Thongsala, the main town in Kho Phangan we were drenched. The town was heaving with people all armed with water guns, buckets, hose pipes and coloured talcum powder! People were blasting music out of their shops and the square in the middle of town had sprinklers on and a stage where people could dance if they felt the need.
We ditched the car after driving through town and quickly bought some water guns. I can’t remember when I last played with a water gun but we all felt like kids again and had such a fantastic day. We were all soaked and full of talcum powder. Some people put ice in their water which was awful when it was poured on you. Other people mix food colouring in their water so we were pink and yellow a some stage of the day. In the afternoon a fire truck drove through town and the firemen put he hide on to spray people. It was quite funny cause they put it on full blast and nearly took a few people out!
We ran around and danced in the square, had a few beers in between water gun fights with locals and other travellers. There was a parade that came through the main street, behind the parade were trucks that had been decorated. One of the trucks had an elderly monk who was gently flicking water over people as a blessing as he drove past. Behind him were a couple of trucks of beautiful girls in traditional dress and of course no parade would be complete without the ladyboys!
We started heading back to our beach at 5pm. O invited us to join a traditional Thai New Years meal that he was cooking for some family and friends that evening. We showered and got cleaned up and joined him and the others at 7:30pm. I have never seen so much food. He just kept brining out dish after dish and it was all fish and seafood – I was in heaven. The food was amazing. He cooked barracuda, red snapper, white snapper, grouper, calamari, squid, prawns and all in different ways. He also made a veggie dish of ferns. I have never eaten ferns before but it was really good. Desert was little fried banana fritters with honey or condensed milk – yum!
After dinner we went to one of his friends bar for a few drinks and met up with 3 other German girls. Pete and I haven’t had any alcohol since we left Oz, so almost a month. We weren’t really in the mood to have a big one as we were exhausted from the days activities so we stayed out until just before midnight, watched an impressive fire show by one of the locals and then left them all to it. It was such a fantastic day and we met some great people. It was so nice of O to include us in their tradition and help us learn more about their culture. I really love Thailand and the people here 🙂