Friday 13th April 2012 - Krabi

I can't believe my headache has lasted this long!! I woke up and still had it so rather than getting up and joining in with the festivities I took tablets and slept until about 1pm.  Once I finally got up my first stop was to hire a scooter. Whilst filling up the tank I got my first taste of the festival - there were trucks of people driving passed throwing water on the passers-by. They didn't try and get me while I was filling up the scooter but the moment the lid was down that was it, I was drenched within seconds!! All I could do was laugh defencelessly. I was going to bring out my gun but when I filled it up the water just leaked everywhere so I decided against it. I got told that I couldn't head towards the beach as the road was one way only today so I had no choice but to join all these vans and scooters filled with people shooting and throwing water. It was frikin amazing!! There were people of all ages packed onto the back of these vans with big tanks of water, water guns and buckets. Some blasted music and were having a little rave as well.  There were points where groups of people stopped you and slathered you with talcum powder. Others threw coloured water or rubbed dye on you. I have never seen anything like it - It was truly wonderful to see everyone getting involved and laughing. You are even allowed to get the police! After riding around for a couple of hours and getting covered with all kinds of things I decided to go to the place I had been for shisha the night before. As soon as I pulled up next to the restaurant I was greeted with buckets and buckets of water, talcum powder and hoses. I parked my scooter and stayed with these guys for another couple of hours attacking all the passerbys like a true local. I had such a wonderful day and laughed and screamed so much. Everyone let go of all their inhibitions and just acted like children.  I decided to look up the water festival afterwards because I had no idea what it was for. It turns out that it is a part of the Thai new solar year celebrations which last for three days. The water festival is the start of the celebrations and marks the end of the year. The water is supposed to be to wash away all the bad luck so if you get soaked it is supposed to be good luck. After today I think I should have plenty of good luck!!