It’s on for young and old, Thai and tourist.
It’s Songkran.
Yesterday was the official start of Songkran, although the water fights started early in some places. After Thai school on Saturday I went down to soi 4 for a quiet drink, only to find that people with itchy trigger fingers had already declared war.
Yesterday I returned more appropriately dressed …board shorts, singlet and sandals !

The “Largest Adult Playground ” sign outside Nana Plaza usually refers to the gogo bars inside, but over Songkran it could just as easily be any of the water fights around town. At this time of year nobody gives a second thought to grown men and woman carrying super-soaker water guns around town. It’s hard to imagine Songkran if you are used to the rules of the real world, just imagine a combination of hot weather, loud grinding morlam music, enough alcohol to make people happy but not aggressive, the Thai innate sense of sanuk (fun), and plenty of water !
There are many bars here along soi 4, each “fighting” the bar opposite, but calling a short truce whenever a tuktuk or pickup came along to attack them from both sides.
Obviously I was not going to risk my good DSLR in this mayhem, so all these photos are taken with my old Panasonic Lumix waterproof camera and the photos are just average. I did see one brave or foolish guy with a Nikon D700 DSLR though !
The mayhem continues for another couple of days, so here are just a few pics from day 1 :