3 DAY WATERFIGHT! - THAI NEW YEAR (SONGKRAN)

BORNEO

Before travelling to the North of Thailand, I visited the island of Borneo for a wedding! Borneo is a large island in Asia that is split between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei (I visited Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian part).

I only had a few days on the island but I got to stay in a five star hotel resort, which was a lot different to the other places I had stayed in :)

BACK IN THAILAND

When I returned from Borneo, I got an overnight train from Bangkok (the capital city of Thailand) to the North of Thailand to a city called Chiang Mai.

The seats on the train folded out into bunks for people to sleep in. Each bunk had their own green curtain for privacy. The journey took roughly 14 hours!

I wanted to be in Chiang Mai at this time of the year to celebrate the Thai New Year (Songkran). Thai people celebrate the new year between April 13th and April 15th. They traditionally celebrate it with a ritual of throwing water (basically, a huge, nationwide waterfight where everybody joins in). The tradition is based on the ritual of 'washing away your sins' and starting over for the New Year.

We took to the streets with waterguns and were soaked as soon as we left our guesthouse. As we explored the city, we saw everyone holding waterguns or buckets and people would drive around in their cars with huge buckets of water to throw at random strangers. In the 40 degree heat it felt very refreshing as we were completed soaked from head to toe! The good thing about it was that it was all done in good nature and everybody had a smile on their face! Also, the 'fighting' generally stopped at 6pm which meant you could go out into the streets without fear of getting all of your clothes and belongings soaked.

Water guns were on sale everywhere and everybody joined in, regardless of their age!

It was common to see cars like this driving through the streets with people in the back with buckets of water to throw at passers-by.

Unfortunately, after 3 days of water fights, Songkran was over! I visited a temple on a mountainside that contained the relics of the Buddha:

PAI

As I write this blog post, I am in a small town called Pai in the mountains to the North-west of Chiang Mai. I love it here! It is much more relaxed than Chiang Mai as it is more remote and there are hardly any cars or hustle and bustle. I have my own hut and am really enjoying my time before I travel East to a country called Laos next week.

I have a mosquito net on my bed to prevent myself from being bitten at night.

I visited a Buddha statue on the mountainside that had yet to be coated in gold.

One of the nearby waterfalls in the area.

The sunsets here are magical!