She enjoyed so much of the Songkran Festival in Pattaya
The second day in Thailand we departed to Pattaya, the other city of Thailand which transformed from a small fishing village in decades, into a city of popular beach resorts and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The city is about 165 km southeast of Bangkok and it took us 3 hours drive from Bangkok to reach our destination.
On our way to our hotel, Baron Beach Hotel near the beach, we went pass a lively street with Songkran Festival celebration. The crowd was not as massive as in Khao San Road’s celebration, however people were as wild and as blissful.
The Songkran Festival is the most celebrated festival in Thailand. In April of every year, the Thais have just garnered their harvest of rice, and are expecting rains for the next season’s planting. The Songkran portrays the typical ways of life of the Thais which involve agriculture.
Sayings from old days tell us that mythical serpents would spout water from the sea and bring rain water to the land, and the water-splashing during the Songkran is believed to have been a rain-making ritual. It is also believed that water cleanses and washes away bad luck, thus a blessing to get splashed by others.
Along the streets of pubs and bistros in Pattaya, the tourists and locals armed themselves with water pistols and other vessels suitable for dousing and engage in some seriously wet warfare. They just could not stop splashing water on others including us. Laughter was all around the place. It was really fun.
I managed to take some shots of the celebration:
We enjoyed the festival so much that we had almost forgotten about the water splashed on my camera. Sawaddee Pee Mai (Happy Thai New Year)! May everyone be happy.
SC, i think u missed out 1 “important” picture rite? Where’s that pic? wakakaka
not suitable to post here.. hehe 🙂