Before I say anything about our ministry in Thailand, I have GOT to tell you about Songkran!
Where to begin?? Okay, apparently April is the worst time to visit Thailand seeing as it is the hottest month of the year unless….. you make it here for SONGKRAN – the celebration of Thai New Year (not to be confused with Loy Krathong – the Thai Lantern Festival – which I had really wanted to see but its in November)!!
Anyway, here in Chiang Mai, Songkran lasts 3 full days. Roads close, food vendors line the streets, stages are put together, performers are brough in, trucks are loaded with barrels of water and water guns are filled for the biggest, bestest, longest WATER FIGHT I have ever seen!
At first the idea of walking around wet did not appeal to me – the heat was bad enough to deal with…little did I know how much I would come to love this holiday! Day two, Melissa, Bethany, Natasha and I decided to find out what all the fuss was about downtown. I didn't know what to expect at this point but I wanted to be ready so Melissa and I purchased our 90 baht ($3.00) "heavy duty" water guns. Ten minutes later, having only shot the people on my team, I was gun-less due to a minor malfunction…the water barrel broke off!! I was pretty disappointed and tried to negotiate a new gun for free but the lady wasn't going for it.
So the four of us begin walking down the street toward the center of town, unaware of what we were about to walk into. Restaurant owners literally stand outside their places of business with barrels of water throwing buckets of it on anyone who passes by: young, old, songtow (the public transportation here), moped – no exceptions! It is both hilarious and extremely dangerous. I almost slipped many times throughout the day!
A couple hours later (we didn't realize how far away it was) we arrive in the center of it all and I begin to realize just how big of a deal this holiday is to the Thai people! So many people were there and ALL ages! It was so exciting to be apart of it! Who would have guessed you could shoot a complete stranger in the face with a water gun and they would genuinly smile back at you??
Something else you should be ready for is having white paste wiped on your face at random times throughout the day. I still have absolutely no idea what this means but should you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai, Thailand during Songkran – don't be alarmed!
I am realizing there is too much that happens to write about in one blog, so I guess you'll just have to come to experience it for yourself!
