On April 13, 14 and 15 each year, Thailand celebrates its New Year with Songkran, a traditional festival that falls in the hottest time of the year and involves the throwing of water.
Unlike many of the most prominent supposedly religious traditions celebrated in western society, (Easter eggs evolved from a Pagan ritual to become the hallmark of a Christian celebration and Father Christmas is modeled on a character in an old Coca Cola commercial) Songkran has remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of years and has always involved the throwing of water.
It's a much-loved local tradition, and all of Thailand's 60 million inhabitants get involved, plus a few million "farangs" who fly in for the fun. If you've neglected nurturing your inner child, there's nothing quite like a water fight to bring junior to the fore.
Believe it or not, these images were captured in one of the less crazy parts of Songkran in Bangkok - they were taken from the safety of the Australia Bar in Soi 11 Sukhumvit and I didn't stray much outside the bar for fear of what would happen to my gear.
Ice cold water is an entirely different matter though, and you will remember getting doused with close-to-freezing water.
The action gets going around midday, though it's entirely possible to find yourself on the wrong end of a bucket of water at any time during the three days of the festival, regardless of the hour of day.
I was amazed that my cameras didn't get soaked, but as I became more immersed in the spirit of the festival and a little braver, I realized that some sanity actually does prevail and from time-to-time, when someone caught me outside the confines of my safe haven, they were quite considerate about the cameras - though there was no mercy for the body or my clothes.
In such circumstance, it's best to just hold the cameras above your head and "cop it." If you look through the images you'll see women holding their Gucci handbags above their head while they are drenched.
I saw several people spared a thorough dousing during the three days - one was on crutches with a leg in plaster, one was an elderly woman, and another was in a wheelchair.
With the sudden rise in popularity of smartphones over the last two years, many of the casualties of last year's Songkran apparently involved dead Android and iOS devices. I came prepared with a spacial bag I'd purchased in a camping store overseas - it cost me US$50.
Entrepreneurialism is alive and well and living in any Asian country though, and this year there were dozens of vendors walking the street selling high quality (with ziplock and fold) plastic bags which were very similar to the one I'd brought with me, though at 30 baht (US$1.00), somewhat cheaper.
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