One of the best descriptions and explanations of Songkran here in Thailand is at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. CLICK HERE!
Basically the whole country shuts down and parties, except for the folks that make money supplying the party, the police and medical folks. In the five days, over 400 people are expected to die during this big party, mostly alcohol related.
Pictures like this may Songkran a wonderful time.
If you would like to read our past stories about Songkran just CLICK HERE!
On Friday, the first official day of Songkran, Daeng and I took things pretty easy. We had coffee and Pa Thong Ko in the Ban Pa Mueat morning market, bought some cut up pineapple and hung out around the house the rest of the day. One of the things we did hanging out was just that, we hung out the wash.
Some of the things that everyone usually does during Songkran are wash clothes, clean the house, throw the old, unused things away getting ready for a new start in the next year.Here is a picture of Daeng on TAX day. You can also read about that story by CLICKING HERE.
Day two, Saturday Daeng went out and became part of the water fun. She got a little sun burn but had fun. As for me, I took a long nap.Being really bored Sunday, the third day, seven of us hopped, maybe a better word is squeezed into the Nissan March and went on a little road trip. The seven were Daeng, brother Tun, sister-in-law Hlong, Hlong's sister and son, Bum, that's Bang's son and me.
One part of Songkran is to visit older family members thanking them and giving your best wishes and blessings to them. Our first stop was up the hill from the southern police check point. The stop was to visit Hlong,s sister's son's grandmother on his father's side. Wow, a score card is needed on this trip.
Next stop, after the check point, we made a few turns and went up the hill on the east side of route #1 onward to Hlong's cousin's house. We had been there once before to celebrate the building of there house. It is right in the middle of rice fields.
What's done to build a house in a rice field is to dig a big hole in the ground which becomes a pond. The dirt from the pond makes the land the house will be build on. Win-win, pond for fish and high ground to build the house on.
There are all kinds of things to eat besides the fish in the pond.
Daeng found some crab next to the house and rice paddy.
I took a little walk around the pond and found some bananas.
After a little rest, we all got back in the car and headed to Hlong's sister's house in Mae Chan. It was only a few more minutes south. When we reached "La's" home we hung out eating pork, sticky rice, fried squid, water melon, papaya and mango.
To cool down a little, Daeng also went into the river beside her house. The temperature was nice today, around 95 degree Fahrenheit or 35 degree Celsius.
Around five o'clock, Daeng said maybe it was time to go home. The rest of the gang was staying there for the night. We said good-bye to the new hatched baby birds. I know their mother was glad to get us out of there.I set the GPS to "Home" and off we went. For dinner we stopped along the road and had some bar-be-qued squid, chicken livers and fried onions, along with some sticky rice.
Day four, Monday morning we got up and took the motorbike over to the Ban Pa Mueat morning market but NO ONE, except the beggar Su-la, was there. We didn't even stop and Su-la just nodded his head and smiled at us. We headed to the Mae Sai morning market about 4 km up the road.
The Mae Sai morning market was really quiet but the Coffee and Pa Thong Ko shop was open. We also picked up some fried chicken at the bottom of the hill. The rain and thunderstorms from last night had cleaned the smoky air and it was nice to see the sun shine through.
This is a picture taken from our bedroom window.
Here is a video of the coffee lady making coffee with a smile and a "Thank you very much."
We always Laugh at the way she says: "Thank you, thank you very much."
Someone wanted to buy some noodles but the noodle lady was not around so Daeng stepped in and handled the noodle sale. Yep, she used her noodle to sell noodles. Is that to many noodle references? 
Now Monday is Temple Day. It is a day that almost everyone in Thailand goes to the Temple. There are thousands and thousands of Temples in Thailand, as well. They are all nice but some are really beautiful.
Of all the Temples in Thailand, we like the "White Temple" the best.
On Tuesday, we decided we were "funned" out. I don't think "funned" is a real word but we have just had tooooo much fun.
This morning we stopped at the temple by our home and worked out a little on the new exercise equipment. Although the equipment is extremely nice we like the old equipment on the Soi by our home. 
We also looked at a wood table and four stools that the maker said he would accept 3200 THB ($110 USD) for the five pieces. Daeng and I said we would think about buying them for the area on the second floor by the Thai kitchen.
Daeng also spent a lot of the last few days working on her patchwork quilt. She started it in America about a year ago. It is almost finished and sewn all by hand. It looks really nice.We will be extremely happy when the day is over and we can go back to our regular, boring life.
In our opinion, three days of Songkran is good but five days is way to much.
Happy Songkran (Thai New Year) to ALL!
