Drink the whiskey, throw the water

New Years Eve in New York City is one hell of a party but it's got nothing on Thai's new year celebration of Songkran. Celebrated anywhere from 3 to 7 days depending on the city, Songkran is an all out, country-wide water fight. Along with the squirt guns and buckets of water, people also smear white powder on each other's faces and, of course, drink copius amounts of alcohol. The celebration is truly of epic proportions. A sobering account of how crazy people get is this year's toll of over 300 deaths from alcohol-water related accidents.

For those who live in Thailand, or for those traveling without having to worry about time, the several day celebration is a relentless party. For my parents on a short visit however, we spent the water fights on the island where, if anything, the water was refreshing.

Stepping onto the boat in Phuket we were greeted by a band and several kids giving us flower necklaces, wiping our faces with wet, white powder and shooting us with squirt guns. The band jammed for the entire hour and a half boat ride to Ko Phi Phi.

Arriving at the island we were greeted by a guy from our hotel, already soaking wet and covered in powder. He grabbed our bags, put them on a cart, then continued to wait for other people, all while drinking his can of Beer Chang. Nobody escaped the getting wet or being wiped white with powder. Eventually we headed back through town, the guy pushing our luggage on a cart, and us walking behind, easy targets for the small parties that stood along the sidewalks ready to drench us. At the end of the gauntlet, we each were drenched.

The party on Ko Phi Phi didn't last as long as the festivals in other cities. The next day there were only minor water fights and we missed them all, spending the day snorkeling and island hopping. But, when traveling with your parents -even if your mother is a water war veteran from Texas- it's better to keep the water skirmishes to a couple isolated incidents and enjoy the rest of the time only as wet as you want to be.