It's a real honor, to share the same birth date as Thailand's new year's aka the water festival. The Thai's are saying that the water splashing symbolizes purifying one's self. And it bodes well for me, because I certainly need some purifying for a fresh start- figuratively speaking of course. ;-)
My colleagues certainly provided not 2 but 3 birthday surprises for me. And I am super thankful and greatful for them. =)
1st one being during dinner in an Italian restaurant on the eve of my birthday, they went up on stage and sang a birthday song while one carried the birthday cake! Very very sweet. =)
2nd one... Omg... this one is a classic trick and I fell right for it. >.< One of the gal colleagues went into my room at 11pm to play the cube. And I was a little curious at first because she wouldn't normally come this late of hour. Then later, she faked that she's lost one of her ear rings, and begun to sniffled a little... I told her to retrace her steps, and we walked right to the pool area where she last saw both ear rings on.
POW! Another surprise! >.< And with my favourite Secret recipe cakes! In addition to that, I received 2 different presents from them. The girls gave me a hush puppy singlet. And xuan gave me... a pendant shaped of a Helix from the Heroes series! Omg! Thanks lots guys!!!!
There were some other tenants there swimming. Supposedly breaking the Songkran fast... early. =P And the girls managed to talked them to throwing me into the pool. >.< Ahahha. Thanks guys!
The 3rd surprise. Well. =) It was coowl.
Day 1
On the first day of Songkran (13th April) . All we did was head out to Kao San road at abou 4pm (Which is pretty near China Town) with the girls' Thai friend and another Malaysian friend. That's where all the youngsters celebrated. I didn't want to risk getting my phone soaked so there aren't pictures of it.
Kao san is actually a road through the side of shop houses. We didn't head in because it was too cramped. So we stuck a long the busy main road (Both sides) where all the food stalls are located. It's crowded there too. But not as sardined as the actual Kao San road.
The basic fare is people splashing water with buckets, water guns, water rifles, and people splatting some whitish gooey mixture onto your face (White powder + water). The scariest part is when people surprise you from the back with iced-water (Nam kheng). Brrrrrrrrrr.
I didn't get splash much, in which the Malaysian friend commented that because I might have looked a bit uptight and because of my stature. lol. Well, in the end, the girls (Who were the primary targets throughout the evening), got so fedup that I still remained clean, requested passer bys to get me soaked and splat with the white thing. Nasty. ;-P
We headed back at about 7.30pm. Thanks Eric and Tony for tagging along. It was fun!
Day 2
Didn't do much today, except for heading out to Tesco for some groceries towards the evening. On our way back we witnessed the below. This scenes are taken along Soi 22 of Sukhumvit.
People driving pickup trucks and the passengers behind would fire away. ;-P
Defence against pickups.
Day 3
On day 3, which also is the last day of Songkran is when we got to experience the peak and closure of Songkran. Where the party would go on till late evening and surprisingly abruptly ends at 9pm sharp.
Our Thai colleagues (The ones who took us for the province sightseeing), got his pickup truck all geared up (Complete with a HUGE pail of water) for water bombardment.
We were off to Samut Songkhram then at last Nakhon Pathom provinces at about 11.30am.
Mr. Lucky (Pronounced Looky). Is a very lovable golden retriever. Normally golden retrievers are very friendly with strangers, but somehow Lucky seems more fixated with his master. And would follow wherever the masters go. Very loyal dog.
I brought my camera phone this time. But wasn't sure how bad the condition's gonna be from behind the truck. Here, we were approaching the first bombardment zone.
After the initial attack. I decided that the camera was best suited inside the truck. It was crazy. Here I'm already soaked. >.<
We stopped by Carrefour along the way to stock up on snacks and drinking water. Then it was off to the hotzone. Mahachai road if not mistaken.
The before pic.I decided to sit this one out as I wanted to take pictures of the action for keepsake purposes. Yeah in a way I missed out all the craziness and intensity but I am glad I got the pics. Although they are all taken from within the truck. So most of the shots can get pretty repetitive. But given the circumstance, it's pretty hard to say no to people who's out there partying hard and splashing about.
Lucky gets the front seat! haha.
Rival pickup trucks. lol.
Locals would stop you in the middle of the street, while they dance. Some would splash water or paint your vehicle with the white stuff.
Even the cleaning ladies are getting into the action. lol.
There was a HUGE traffic jam along Mahachai road. Due to people partying on the street. I think the entire journey along the short x km stretch took us about 2 hours to go through.
Lucky gets some face paint.
This young lady actually stopped our truck. Asked us to wind down the windows. While she asked some biographic questions about ourselves her partner would face paint us. I didn't want to get face paint, but she was sorta pleeing something about "It's a ones in a year thing, c'mon la... etc..." ahahaha. Then I was like mehhh. why not. ;-P
Gals dancing to the rythm of the boom box.
After picture. Well, midway at least. We stopped by to refill the water pail. 
You can see people splashing water from high above the flyover too.
Towards the evening is when the celebration goes into high gear. The music roared up even more. And the crowd would just go wild on the streets.
Our journey ended at 9pm. We headed back after dinner.It was a very very very fun day. And I am definitely most humbled and honoured to be able to experience Thailand's new year. It is something we talked about long time ago and didn't get the actual chance to see for ourselves, but now I finally did and am very satisfied.
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