We were told that the celebrations would start in Bangkok and move through the country to different cities. On the 6th day the celebrations were to be in Pattaya where the celebration encompasses the whole city. What actually happened was starting on day one, when we went out people were walking around with squirt guns and familys were loaded in the back of trucks with a barrel of water and buckets. Anyone that looked like they might be hot got wet. This picture was taken in the back of what we call a 10 baht truck. These trucks drive up and down on one road and you can flag one down, jump on and ride until you want to get off then you pay the driver 10 baht. It's 10 baht as long as you stay on the same road. You can see how wet you might get in the back of one of these when someone with a bucket of water drives by. Or if you drive by someone with a hose.
This picture is kind of hard to see because my camera was in a ziplock bag. On the left is another 10 baht truck and in the middle a truck full of a family throwing water. I guess I should mention that the water wasn't limited to squirt guns and buckets. There were water hauling trucks with hoses, fire trucks and fire hydrants opened up. We are staying in the Marriott, next door is an Irish pub called Diceys. Diceys has an agreement with the Marriott and it was the designated place to hang out if you are a hotel guest or employee. On the 19th Diceys went all out.... they put a stage out on the sidewalk, Huge speakers and plenty of hoses. Anyone that wanted to could go stand on the stage and spray down the traffic. The music started early in the morning and continued until midnight. In the video below I was sitting at Dicey's filming the action. I was far enough back that I didn't have to bag my camera.
In the video you can see people coming up and smearing the faces of the girls with something. This is a soy powder mixed with water. The paste is thrown at people and smeared on faces. It gets everywhere. You will see cars parked with paste all over them and the 10 baht trucks have been rubbed down. The paste isn't too bad when they first put it on your face, kind of gritty. As it dries it doesn't feel so good and it feels good to get sprayed down to get it off. Actually this is the hottest time of the year and it has been extremely hot so it felt good to get sprayed just to cool off. It was just annoying when we wanted to go shopping or out to dinner and were drenched before we got there. Then if we went into an air conditioned restaurant we were freezing while we tried to eat. I asked one of the hotel girls what the paste symbolized thinking there must be some deep meaning to it and she said it was an excuse for people to touch each other. Someone else told me that they used it in ancient times at weddings too. It is hard to say if there is any deep meaning to the paste. The water was used to pour over the Buddha. It still is today. You will see little ceremonial places set up along the streets and on the grounds of the hotels. People go there to pour water over the Buddha and place flowers and fruit.
Jerry left for the day, I could call him chicken but he really did need to go get a work permit so he could continue working. After all that is why we are here. He flew to Malaysia, spent the day in the airport, and came home late that night. I met up a really nice girl that works at the hotel. We walked down the beach road that was closed to traffic. Most of the celebration is along the beach road which is blocked off from traffic. It was crazy, packed with people, venders, squirt guns, bands, food............We walked quite a ways down the road and met with some other hotel staff and another hotel guest. We ended up at a shopping mall right next to to hotel on the beach road.
In the video you can see a guy holding a bucket. There were little drink stands set up, they are like a cart with bike wheels. They could wheel them where ever the action is at the time. They just filled your bucket with your favorite drink, ice, and straws and away you went. There was a lot of drinking, dancing, etc going on. I can't say what was happening all over the city because I only went out on 2 streets (the one in front of the hotel, and the beach street behind the hotel). It was crazy whereever I went. The video shows a bubble machine pouring bubbles out on the crowd. People on the stage have a hose spraying down the crowd and at the end of the video along comes a fire truck on the other side of the street and hit the crowd from the rear.
Well I think I have done enough writing for one day. I have figured out a lot about posting pictures and videos along my way today. It has been a busy day. If you have questions or the video doesn't work post them on here. I did the two videos in different formats so I'm not sure if they will both work or not.
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