around the world one continent at a time: Songkran!

Hello All!

Last i posted i had made it to Koh Samui safely and was going to meet up with my two other friends (one went home early due to a bike wreck.) My first night in Koh Samui i spent on my own as i made it before the others, i didn't do much that night as i had a long travel day before, i managed to find some bungalows on the water for 300 baht and they were surprisingly really nice for the price. I just hung out on the beach till the sun went down, then grabbed some dinner and finished off the night hearing the waves come crashing in, not a bad night!

My seat on the Ferry to the island

Arriving to Koh Samui

The next day i woke up early and walked about 30-40 min in 100 degree weather with a 30lb backpack on, not fun at all! I finally made it to our hotel that we had booked for the following 5 days 4 nights, due to the floods reception told me that about 70% of the people who had booked cancelled and it allowed me to check in 4hrs before check in time :-) I lounged around until Brett and Brendan finally showed up. We went out so i could get some flip flops and then grabbed some dinner then started throwing some Chang down. We got drunk then made it over to the next beach town called Chaweng and walked around and after awhile we came back to where we were staying at and finished drinking at the bar of our hotel.

The view from my bungalow

My bungalow

The next day was the day before Songkran, which is Thai new year, we got up and went out for lunch not knowing what was about to happen. About halfway through our street i saw some kids standing there with water guns, i knew that it was a huge watertight but what i didn't know is that it was started a day before the actual new year. We got hit with water right from the get go so we went into a Club 7 and got a plastic bag to put our phones and wallets in to prepare for what was to come. After getting some food we got some water guns so we could partake in the festivities and what a great holiday/festival! All it is is a huge watertight throughout the city and everyone gets involved, kids, moms, dads, grandparents they're all out on the street throwing water on each other. We finished the day all soaking wet and managed to get other people soaking wet as well. This was just the beginning of the festival. The next day (13th of April) was the actual Thai new year, so we knew that all it was going to be was a water fight, we got ready for the day leaving the phones behind and only carrying our wallets in a plastic baggie, i braved it and decided to take my camera along as well and man was i glad i did. We got out to the main road and it was madness, and next to Oktoberbest in Munich i don't think i've had this much fun while traveling! Everyone was out and there were drums of water on every corner and what people did was put bricks of ice in the water making it that much more fun, so what we would do is walk up and down the street and whenever someone threw ice cold water on us we would stay there and return the favor and throw ice water on everyone else. This went on all day and by the evening things had calmed down, the bar at our hotel had a big party that night so that's where we ended our night. We are in Koh Samui for a couple more nights then off to Koh Phangan for the full moon party, so until next time. Enjoy!