The Songkram festival, for those that don't know, is the Thai New Year although their year date still goes forward one year on Jan 1st - confused? We were. The festival takes place from 13-15th April every year and the city of smiles (and traffic) becomes one of utter utter chaos. Originally, in years gone by, Songkram marked the opportunity for the devout Buddhist population to 'cleanse' the spirit of the old year by pouring water over themselves and their family. Indeed it is seen as a time when all families in Thailand get together and even the traffic in Bangkok subsides.

Feeling brave or foolhardy we decided to venture out in the midday sun to Khao Sarn Rd - the backpacker strip we usually avoid. As this is near the Grand Palace and temple area it is the scene of most of the wild behaviour. The sight that greeted us was one of complete mayhem. The street was teaming with hundreds if not thousands of people of all ages and nationalities, Thais mixing with the Westerners. For once in this area the latter were in the minority. The pavements were lined with water sellers and again the prices were standard for Westerners and Thais. There were hosepipes for refilling and tens of water-pistol vendors. The Thais also had some sort of paste - bit like a flour and water combo - which they spread over any part of your anatomy they could get hold of. Jen remarked she had never been touched by so many men in such a short space of time - well quite! Armed with some of Adam's ale and a double-barrelled pump-action Kalashnikov of a 'pistol' we ventured forth. How to describe the next 2 hours - carnage. Not alot else fits the bill word-wise really. Water comes at you from all angles, when we re-filled (and were, thus, stationary) was the worst time as water would come at you from everyone and everywhere - regularly a couple of pints (complete with ice cubes) would go down your back/over your head. It was really interesting to watch a number of Westerners who delighted in standing in the periphery and just shooting people but complaining when they got hit...that's how not to play this game. The walk down the road was incredibly good natured and many 'Happy Songkram's were exchanged along with the obligitory paste. Without doubt, the funniest sight of the day was a backpacker who had obviously not heard of the festival who pitched up at the wrong end (where all the crowds were) of KSR. As soon as she left her taxi looking for cheap accomodation (we didn't tell her all the guesthouses were closed - that would have spoiled the fun) she was descended upon by about 20 people and within a couple of minutes, her, her backpacks (front (does that make it a frontpack?) and back) all her clothes and everything she was carrying (including guidebook) were drenched - welcome to Thailand!!

Despite looking like a couple of extras from Waterworld (not exactly Kevin Costner's finest hour - not sure it had any flour paste scenes though to be honest) we managed to flag a tuk-tuk down and made it back to the hotel to change before venturing out (with a fresh set of dry clothes) for lunch. On our way we asked not to be soaked and the Thai's were very gracious and didn't throw anything at us, unsurprisingly the only guys who refused were a couple of typical drunk 'Brits abroad' who, despite Jen explaining the situation, soaked her then me. She said something to them I can't repeat on here and I followed up with a similar expletive whilst throwing the remnents of my bottle of (drinking) water in one of their faces. For once I seemed to get the last laugh as I knocked his shades off and they fell on the floor, hopefully getting scratched in the process. We decided to stay at the hostel tonight as a) we're running out of clothes and b) if those dickheads we saw earlier were anything to go by, a little testosterone and alot of beer will probably not mix well with water and paste and I imagine a load of Westerners will probably end up in some kind of fight. I can understand when the Thai press is so critical of how the festival has been turned into a glorified water fight. That said we enjoyed ourselves, and our overriding memory will be of the friendly greetings and warmth in the Thais' smiles...before they attempted to drown us!!

We fly to Krabi on yet more discounted tickets tomorrow - 8.05 flight so another early flight - we've managed to book 3 nights for the price of 2 at a really nice sounding resort. We might dive in Krabi but in all honesty we will probably save that for Koh Lanta in a week or so. I am sure we will continue to get soaked tomorrow. Just to be on the safe side we have paid for a taxi to pick us up at the airport as we didn't feel like braving the songthaew in Krabi as they are open and you're a moving target, albeit a relatively fast moving one.