Water War! Fight!

Somehow, Chinese New Year and other festivals seemed to have lost much of their lustre  and meaning to many Singaporeans. People would leave the country for a holiday, or just spend the day to rest from the hectic work.

In Laos, on the other hand, the new year is so well celebrated, it makes the anticipation and the actual event so much more fun.

Pi Mai Lao, the Laos New Year, is held every mid April, when the heat of summer is at its height.

In Thailand, it is also known as Songkran, where much water is splashed and more fun had.

Had my first Pi Mai Lao this April, and my! Never had I so much fun!

Went into the back of the pick up of my land lady, together with 10 odd other people. At the back, we filled 5 big buckets of water, and threw packets of ice into them. The icy water literally sent a shiver down those whom we splashed the water at!

Initially,  I was like, what’s the fun about splashing water at people?

But when I started, I just couldn’t stop!

There just seemed be such childlike fun, leaving behind the inhibitions and just cruising down the roads.

Being the biggest and tallest amongst the warriors, I stood at the front of the pick up and I could almost imagine that I was commandeering my troops to a war!

We went temple hopping and the roads were literally jammed packed.

That was when the fun began.

At traffic junctions and the jammed roads, we would just splash water at the neighbouring vehicles and woe beheld those on motor bikes!

Naturally, the falangs (foreigners) and girls were our main targets.

Despite the extremely lack of rain (for about 5 months), nobody seemed to care about water wastage.

If it was Singapore…

Perhaps we should have something similar when we wanted to introduce NEWATER to the masses. Splashing others with NEWATER.

Wonderful way of spending an age old tradition!