Been seeing a few photos of a friend celebrating Songkran just now. Has anyone experienced it? We have been out twice during New Year celebrations. The first time was in Hua Hin. It was a much more gentle experience than Bangkok. Lots of throwing water at each other- but the locals made sure we were up for it before chucking it on us We also had folks annointing our faces with a white paste- which actually seemed to be really good for the skin. When they do this they utter a good wish. The paste is to ward off evil spirits. You are not meant to wash it off- it is supposed to come off naturally. This is easy when you are getting drenched . I remember we had left our sedate hotel to have a wander around and came back drenched and covered in paste. We got into our lift with 3 Japanese tourists who were trying to politely ignore the state we were in, obviously they had no idea about the festival. The mayhem stopped after dark.The experience was a lot of fun.
Bangkok was a bit of a nightmare as it continued after dark and they weren't really caring if you were dressed up or not. It was way over the top and some tourists did not want to leave their hotel. At the airport on the way home, a poor couple had got covered in flour and water coming out the taxi. The female did her best to clean herself up but it was going to be a long uncomfortable trip on the flight home!