A couple of Thai girls celebrating Songkran on Khao San Road. It's customary to mix clay and water together and wipe it on people's faces : - ) That's what they're carrying in the buckets.
Only a few of blocks away the "red shirts" take to the streets in protest.
Back at the water fights...... Travelers coming or going can't escape the blasts, backpacks and all. At the sound of someone shouting "dry person", water would be sent their way from all angles. Most people were good about it and had a laugh but some people got down right nasty if you sprayed them. One woman hit me and tried to throw a plate at Chelle!!
It's hard to imagine during the fun and festivities that not too far away things are heating up and turning violent.
Day 4 and Kim "Sniper" Boundy catches two people unawares!
The government decides to step in.
This is the money shot! Chelle didn't see that one coming!After Chelle and I lodged our applications for our Indian visas we had 11 days to kill in Bangkok. The Songkran festival (Thai New Year) kept us cool and wet for 4 solid days when temperatures soared to the high 30’s with incredible humidity. Songkran turned out to be the biggest water fight that either of us had ever been involved in with thousands of people taking to the streets armed with super soakers, buckets of ice water and pots of clay. At the same time however, only a few blocks away, people were also taking to the streets in the form of protests. The “Red Shirts” were holding demonstrations aimed at getting rid of the current government.
One day as Chelle and I returned to our hotel in a tuk-tuk we accidentally drove right into the centre of one of these demonstrations. From what we could see, the “Red Shirts” had stolen a police van and were running around wearing the police riot gear. We didn’t stick around to see what happened next. The next day the protests escalated into violent riots, a state of emergency was declared and the Thai army intervened. After the Australian government issued a travel advisory for Bangkok, I received numerous phone calls from my Mum. I gave her daily updates as the events were unfolding and reassured her that neither Chelle nor I were in any danger. I even got interviewed by a correspondent from the ABC television network in Australia!
We've put some photos together to show both sides of these crazy events.
One day as Chelle and I returned to our hotel in a tuk-tuk we accidentally drove right into the centre of one of these demonstrations. From what we could see, the “Red Shirts” had stolen a police van and were running around wearing the police riot gear. We didn’t stick around to see what happened next. The next day the protests escalated into violent riots, a state of emergency was declared and the Thai army intervened. After the Australian government issued a travel advisory for Bangkok, I received numerous phone calls from my Mum. I gave her daily updates as the events were unfolding and reassured her that neither Chelle nor I were in any danger. I even got interviewed by a correspondent from the ABC television network in Australia!
We've put some photos together to show both sides of these crazy events.
