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April found us once again celebrating another New Year, this time the Thai New Year or as it is known here, Songkran, also known as the Water Festival.
Traditionally this was a time when Thais wished each other Good Luck for the coming year by sprinkling a little water over each other.
As time has progressed, this ‘sprinkling’ has escalated to the form seen above, and in some of the pictures below, and whereas in most of Thailand the water throwing is confined to one or two days around the actual New Year date (about April 13th), in Pattaya, the ‘celebration’ continues for the best part of a week.
Many people take the view that this is a good time of year to be elsewhere and so many businesses and restaurants close for the duration, but for those of us that remain, there is only one choice to make, namely either to confine oneself indoors for the best part of a week, or to don the oldest clothes you can find, wrap your camera and anything else valuable in a plastic bag, and venture out into the thick of it - if you go suitably prepared and with the right attitude it can actually be great fun.
The following were a selection of photos I took during this year’s event, mostly taken from the comparative safety of a friend’s car (hence the variable picture quality and some window colouring/frame/wiper intrusion).
In their infinite wisdom, the wine club decided to organise another gala dinner on the Friday of Songkran week.
 Fortunately this day proved to be a lull in the water throwing before the finale the following day and the evening was calm - but just to be on the safe side, we all proceeded there by cars with the windows tightly shut and the doors locked.
The event itself was another superb meal, the theme this time being wines from Australia, and to accompany these, the 6 course meal was seafood orientated.
After that, everybody took a well earned rest and the remainder of the month was uneventful.
To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
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