Songkran

Wow - it's going to be very difficult to try and put into words how incredible Songkran is... I arrived safely after a good flight, on Tuesday evening into Bangkok feeling a little disorientated but ready to explore, I headed into Chinatown...

with Ollie, a Welsh guy I had sat next to on the plane. We found a street stall and took a seat as the locals stared at two (very pale) 'farang' (foreigners). We pointed and smiled and ended up with a very tasty fish ball soup concoction. Welcome to Bangkok!

On Wednesday we headed to the tourist hub of Kho San road with Hilary, another girl from our dorm. Songkran was just beginning... keen to get in the spirit, we bought water guns and the fun began! Imagine walking dow the street and an old thai lady squirting a water pistol down your top. Well that's exactly what happened to me! The kids were fantastic, the glee on their faces was so lovely. I cannot imagine anywhere else in the world where everyone joins in the fun so much as here. Young and old, the whole population gets in the spirit... there are truck loads of people doing drive by soakings... and at night the party really hots up!

We asked a tuk-tuk driver to take us back to Kho San in the evening, but we ended up in Silom - totally the other side of town, but it was amazing... all the locals were partying, and pasing our faces with a white paste to wish us HAPPY NEW YEAR. Such good fun! Last night we went to a very posh hotel's roof top bar (59th floor) and looked out over the city - amazing.

I've already had two massages - a traditional thai massage (ouch) and a very relaxing foot massage. Also, have been to Wat Pho and Wat Aruna - Songkran is the water festival where buddhists pour water over buddahs. Great time to be in Thailand! And I got blessed by a monk today...

I've met a great bunch of people from all over the world in my hostel. I'm taking the train down to the islands tonight, and planning to spend the next week or so on Kho Tao and Kho Panh Yang (sp?) where there is a full moon party... should be fun :)