Songkran Festival in Thailand: The World’s Largest Water Fight
Sometimes when you travel you happen to get a little bit lucky. This past April, we arrived in Thailand on April 13th which happened to coincide with the start of Songkran Festival which is celebrated in Thailand as New Year’s. We boarded our Bangkok Airways flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui and the pilot wished everybody a happy Songkran day. This came as a surprise to us as we had no clue it was New Year’s in this part of the world. The airline also handed out a waterproof pouch for everyone on board the flight that day to use once they arrived in Koh Samui.
Truck full of people with water guns
Songkran is often called the world’s largest water fight and this moniker is certainly appropriate. Once we arrived in Koh Samui, we had about an hour drive from the airport to our hotel on the other side of the island. Almost as soon as we left the airport, you could see it was not a typical day. In the course of an hour drive from the airport to our hotel, our van was probably pelted with buckets of water at least hundred times.
People were lined up on the side of the street with buckets of water or water guns, spraying water at anything that passed by, whether it was cars, trucks, or people on motorbikes. The whole scene was extremely festive. You could see extreme joy that the locals and expats took in celebrating Songkran. After an interesting hour long drive, we finally arrived at our hotel where the celebration continued. Needless to say, after almost twenty plus hours on a plane, it was a welcome sight to experience such a unique holiday.
Roads were completely wet even though it wasn’t raining
Here are some other pictures from Songkran:
Anything goes during Songkran
People also throw powder/chalk in addition to water
Windshield pelted with chalk and water
