If you are planning a trip to Thailand, it is well worth timing it to coincide with the Songkran water festival that is held in Chiang-Mai over three days from the 13th to 15th of April.
The festival welcomes in the Thai New Year and is hugely popular with travellers the world over. The festival kicks off with a ritual cleaning of houses by the locals. This is a spring clean for the year ahead and is followed up by the preparing of the feast for the days to come. The most renowned feature, and reason for tourist interest, however, is the huge water fight that takes place on the last day. Following a morning of religious ceremonies, Chiang-Mai erupts into bedlam and water is hurled, shot, sprayed and dumped on locals and tourists alike for the rest of the day.
This festival has a brilliant party atmosphere with feasts, parades and beauty pageants galore. Just don’t stand under any balconies for too long and keep your wits about you to avoid constant soakings!