birthdays and water fights

Soooo… that happened.

As you're probably aware, last week was my birthday. The big 2-4. Pizza was had. Dancing was done.

But that's not what we're here to talk about. I'm here to talk to you about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just kidding.

I'm here to talk to you about Sonkran. The biggest party I've ever seen. And I've seen some parties. New Years Eve in New Orleans. Halloween in Austin, Texas. Obama's Inauguration. But nothing holds a candle - or a water pistol - to Sonkran.

Sonkran is the water festival to celebrate the Thai New Year. What was once a family celebration where young people washed their elders' hands in scented water has become an all out water war.

Saadia, Ollie and I spent four days locked and loaded with water guns running through a city where the better part of the 13 million-strong population are throwing buckets of ice water and flour on anyone walking by.

Obviously, if you're not in a dry taxi or inside, you're not safe. You'd be stupid to travel by motorcycle or on foot through this war zone. So, brilliantly, we took a tuk tuk, one of those motorcycle carts that leaves you vulnerable to the elements. And explaining the things we saw from this tuk tuk here won't do it justice. But just imagine thousands of soaking wet people crammed into a few streets in central Bangkok with fire engines blasting water hoses into the crowd. Imagine that plus crazy sound systems and you're getting the right idea.

Armed with a water gun in one hand, a beer in the other, clad in our best swimming outfits, we hit the streets ready for war. And we survived… barely. We survived Silom. We survived Khao San -twice. We survived RCA. I lost my shoes and Ollie lost his water gun, but we all made it home in more or less one piece.

So, team, the war is now over and I feel the need to say as commander of this unit (yeah, I just decided that), MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. And also, I'm never drinking again...

(Thanks, Zhava for taking all the pictures!)