Happy New Year!

Today...or tomorrow...or yesterday...or sometime of recent is the Buddhist New Year called Songkran.  Not sure how many people know it's to celebrate New Year.  The only thing we've noticed is that everyone in the entire city has engaged in an all-out water fight.  New Year = Water Fight apparently.

Bret and I were out and about yesterday...on our motorbike (which isn't the best idea during Songkran).  We thought we were going to beat it though because we had heard that things started today, on Friday.  We got splashed a little bit - nothing major.  Eventually we made our way downtown...which happens to be surrounded by a moat.  Nasty and dirty, but still water that can be used for a city-wide water fight.  Bret did a great job maneuvering the bike away from the crazies with water guns and buckets, and we were able to escape into a Starbucks unscathed.  It was so fun watching all the people (from our cozy, indoor, Starbucks chair) who were once dry and who now were drenching.  It was a total party.

But pretty soon we realized that we were stuck.  Surely we wouldn't be escaping Strabucks and driving home without becoming one of these drenching people.  We decided on a game plan:  Bret would run out and squeeze the bike free from all the other bikes that were parked alongside it and drive the wrong way down a street - hopefully circumventing the most congested portion of the world at that moment.  I was going to follow him on on foot - because it's easier to wiggle through traffic with one rather than two on the bike.  Of course this meant that I had to make it past two little kids who were having the time of their life nailing everyone who walked by.  But if you can believe it...we made it out.

As we were driving away celebrating and cheering for our victory, little did we know what was lurking down the street: not one, but two separate ladies each with buckets of water with our names on them!  Oh yeah, we were nailed once...then 30 seconds later...twice.  Hilarious!!

Today we were smart enough to stay inside a car as we made a trip around the moat.  The party clearly officially began today.  People were everywhere!!  But Bret and I had a taste of the pre-party.

This is the little guy that I had to sneak past in order to make it out of Starbucks safely!

Us today, after being safe in a car.  We aren't wearing "Hawaiian Shirts" but "Songkran Shirts."