Songkran, aka Thai New Year, is a giant waterfight in Bangkok. Here a shopkeeper at the Chatuchak weekend market takes part.
Throughout Southeast Asia, the astrological New Year is celebrated in the middle of April. In many countries, including Sri Lanka, it is a time for family, reflection and relaxation. However, we wanted to experience a big celebration, so we moved up our plans and booked a flight to Bangkok the day before. I won’t even go into the indirect route we took, but what should have been a four hour direct flight had two layovers, took us nearly 24 hours, went around 1,000 miles out of the way across India and ended with us sleeping for a couple of hours in the baggage claim area of the Bangkok area, as we arrived at 6am.
This entry was written from our cabin in a live aboard boat we stayed on to scuba diving off of for five days in the Similan Islands, somewhat close to Phuket. However, the entry is all about the amazing time we had in Bangkok: a city that has quickly become one of my favorites in the world. In less than a week we celebrated the New Year, walked through civil unrest and a red shirt protest, stayed at the worst place on earth, saw amazing Asian architecture and stopped at 7-Eleven around 100 times.
Oh, and after the last few epic emails, I promise this one is shorter…and full of some of the craziest experiences we’ve ever had traveling!
Happy Cinco de Mayo…well, here at least.
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