Khao San Road is nuts today with thousands of warm, energetic people celebrating the Thai Lunar New Year.
We stumble upon a great street party where lovely young dancers are selling beer (three cans for 100 baht, or a dollar a can. The party is great but when we see it is Filipino beer, we know we have to have some, in honor of Ivan. Just after we got our beer, this girl got doused with water. I love this shot because I got captured her just at the moment before she reacts to it. But no worries; she gives as good as she gets.
Right in the middle of our fun, we have a line of police vehicles pass through with lights flashing. The police are great. This officer's car is smeared all over with powder but he just quietly carries on with his job. The one chilling event was when a series of Bomb squad vehicles came through the crowd. Some parts of Thailand have experienced bomb scares and even a couple of actual bombs since the Ex-Prime Minister was thrown out. But so far it's all just fun and no problem here. If there was a bomb, there's really not much the police could do to move us. So we might as well keep partying.
We fight our way through this combat zone to get a better look at the stage with the dancers. Songkran is WILD!!!...and sexy. The girl on the right can really dance. They're holding up signs to sell the beer while they groove to the music. Thailand's Songkran is the World's largest Wet T-shirt Party.
Aw is so much fun to party with. She is so bold and has a killer smile as she smears strangers with powder and pours water over them. Ivan and I just hang on for the ride.
Aw is so much fun to party with. She is so bold and has a killer smile as she smears strangers with powder and pours water over them. Ivan and I just hang on for the ride.
Aw snapped this just as the Restaurant owner snagged this Farang with the hose. Look at that evil look of glee on his face.
Songkran reminds me of Halloween. It's the one time in the year when a culture who never touches in public, suddenly is touching everyone. And it's the one time when transsexuals (called 'Lady-Boys' in Thailand) are able to flaunt their stuff on the streets. Aw swears this is a lady-boy. All I know is, everyone is welcome here and we're all having a blast. HAPPY SONGKRAN 2050!Bangkok, Thailand, April 13, 2007
Thailand celebrated the Lunar New Year and they call it 'Songkran'. It's a huge water festival and while it's happening, the whole city shuts down to party. This is Bangkok's Khao San Road areas. There must be fifty thousand people here.
This is Aw after the first ten minutes. We all slather each other with white powder mixed with mud to form a mud for smearing on each other's face as we wish everyone 'Happy New Year'.
I"m wearing the 'Drunk' shirt that Aw gave me to get me in the mood for this crazy event.
This is what my camera sees as I hold it over the crowd on Khao San Road.
That's Ivan on the left. We met him a few days ago at Angkor Wat Cambodia. He's a television producer from the Philippines. He's supposed to be back at work right now but he just couldn't resist the show here.
Ivan started out by saying that he just wanted to stay dry and safe inside somewhere. Then the next thing we knew, he had bought a Commando sized squirt gun and has now become Rambo.
The people of Thailand are so 'Jai dee' (sweet heart). Look at the expression on her face as she douses me.
Songkran is insane; so much fun. We kept walking around and rubbing 'white powder' on the smiling faces around us. Then we came upon a street party led by a group of sexy young women on stage. [See