Songkran Festival 2013 - World's Biggest Water Fight Pt 2

By Mike Hanlon

April 15, 2013

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The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Apart from getting doused in water, getting smeared with sometimes colored, invariably methylated talc is unavoidable.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Things can be as crazy or as gentle as you like. It's a family affair

This little tacker's gun is attached to a tank on mum's back

An ingenious umbrella and pistol combined

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

No need to stock up - everything you need is available on the spot.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Reloading

The camera protection worked a treat - not a drop permeated the housing.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

The unfortunate mix of talc and water means a shower is in order at every opportunity

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Millions of water guns are sold each year - we came across hundreds of vendors

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Murphy's Law in action - this guy had a scooter that made more noise than power and he got it loaded up at exactly the wrong place, drawing fire from everybody

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Mum steering, junior riding shotgun

Four on a scooter

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Trucks full of people with guns and buckets and vast supplies of iced water roam the streets

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

The equivalent of $5 to $10 will get you armed to the teeth

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Author with Ewa Marine U-BXP waterproof housing and Canon 5D MkIII. Put it on auto and keep firing.

View gallery - 157 images

Last year we covered the world's biggest water fight, the Songkran Festival in Thailand, and although our story was viewed 100,000 times, and everyone marveled at the delightfully eccentric contrast to public events elsewhere in the world, I acknowledged that I couldn't supply images which truly reflected how crazy things really get, mainly for fear of damaging my Canon camera system.

This year, armed with a Ewa Marine U-BXP waterproof housing and a Canon 5D MkIII, I was able to venture from the outskirts of the water fight into the center of the water riot with impunity. Millions of water pistols, shotguns and cannons are sold each year in Songkran week and here's how to have a ridiculously good time on a $5 budget.

An ingenious umbrella and pistol combined

Indeed, not much changed this year in the Thai celebration of the New Year. The Songkran Festival is held in the hottest part of the year, and serves many socially beneficial functions. For starters, it's an opportunity for the company to keep cool by getting wet for a week. More importantly, I suspect it serves as a release valve for the steam accumulated from the rigors of life.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

You have to experience it to truly appreciate the magnitude of the Songkran Festival. Very few of the country's 60 million inhabitants don't get involved, and just as football, hockey, UFC and mock wrestling fans blow off the steam accumulated from the rigors of life elsewhere on the planet, the Songkran water riot is perhaps the healthiest way I've ever seen to let it all hang out and reset the blood pressure.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

People of all ages fully participate, it's all done in exceedingly good nature, and the pressures of daily life seem to vanish over the Songkran weekend as your mind focuses sharply on who you get shoot next, and how you can avoid the next bucket of ice-cold water.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

It's quite possible to go through the entire event having more fun than you thought possible without resorting to alcohol, but as with every other major festival in the world, the sinister side of the world's most popular mind altering drug reaped a bumper toll once more.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Thai roads are very dangerous in comparison to more developed parts of the world at the best of times, but the week of Songkran is unquestionably the most dangerous time to be on the roads.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Thailand has an annual road toll (or death toll among road users) of around 20 people per 100,000 inhabitants. That figure is similar to many other countries in Asia, South America and Africa where motorcyclists and pedestrians account for nearly all the road toll, and the end result is that death is somewhere between two and four times more likely than in Europe or North America if you take to the roads.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

Statistics show that Songkran is waaaay more dangerous than at any other time. It may look like it has been raining just prior to these pictures being taken. All that water on the road is simply the result of people spreading the love with their water guns.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

This year's coverage is largely a photographic essay. If you are interested in partaking in the festival, may I suggest you read last year's extensive story. Not much has changed, other than the number of international visitors, which is now climbing at a healthy rate each year.

Mum steering, junior riding shotgun

The pictures will explain why they're arriving in ever greater numbers each year.

The world's biggest water fight - the Songkran Festival Thailand.

View gallery - 157 images

Songkran Festival 2013 - World's Biggest Water Fight Pt 2

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