| SONGKRAN IN THAILAND |
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The Thai New Year (Southeast Asian New Year)
(ʧ��ҹ�� = Songkran in Thai language) is celebrated every year in the middle of April. It is also celebrated in Laos and Myanmar. Sri Lanka also celebrates a similar festival
Shortly after dawn, devout Buddhists gather at the neighborhood temples to offer food for the monks and prayers for the New Year. By mid-morning, though, the town degenerates into a battlefield as the good people of Thailand abandon themselves to a mad free-for-all orgy of throwing, squirting, splashing, heaving, hurling and dumping water on each other. Around streetcorner washtubs lurk little children, armed with water dippers, who gleefully ambush anyone foolhardy enough to venture past. Teenagers on motorcycles weave wildly through traffic, ready to pounce in hit-and-run squirtgun raids. Pickup trucks packed with nubile girls, fetchingly drenched, prowl about the streets in search of victims for a watery mugging.
The Thais used to celebrate the hot season by sprinkling a small out of scented water over each other. But we're in the 21st century Thailand now, and very little of the traditional ways of the country remain. Over Songkran, the streets resemble a war zone, water the ammunition as Thais and farangs, young and old, go crazy attacking all and sundry, doing their best to drench anyone who passes by! In addition to water, many people will be out there throwing around talcum powder, a phenomenon that I've never really figured out
 Motorbikes, bicycles, and buses are prime targets. Pedestrians are certainly no better off. Kids stand in little militias in front of their houses, a hose running freely into a barrel, and they throw buckets of water at anything that moves. They are on summer vacation; they have nothing else to do, and it's the hottest time of the year. Why not stay wet all day?
 People who have a truck will drive around with the teenagers in the back, armed with a big bucket of water. The teenagers then go crazy, attacking all they pass!
 The Culture Ministry will ban spaghetti-strap tank tops and hot pants in the upcoming Songkran celebrations - despite protests from young women. "Wear a simple sarong," Culture Minister Uraiwan Thienthong said yesterday
  If you ask me what is the best time to be in Thailand, I would say Songkran Festival
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