After two blissful weeks in the islands of southern Thailand, we headed north to Chang Mai to celebrate Thailand’s New Year called “Songkran”.  It starts April 13 and lasts between 3 and 10 days, depending on where you are in Thailand. The word Songkran is from the Sanskrit meaning the beginning of a new Solar Year.   It is also known as the “Water Festival” as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.  According to many of our new friends, Chang Mai is the best place to be in Thailand for the celebration.  The city basically shuts down for several days for a full blown water fight.  Our friend Trevor, from Bangkok, also flew up for the festivities.  We all got water guns with backpacks attached.   The majority of the mayhem was along the man made river, called a moat, that surrounded the main part of the city.  People had buckets with ropes attached that they would drop into the moat and fill with water to throw on people who were walking or driving by.  There was also beds of pickup trucks full of people who had large garbage cans filled with ice cold water that they would dump on people as they drove by.  Whenever we got someone wet they would always flash us a big smile…no one ever got mad because it’s fair game…no one is safe, even on small side streets.  The water fight would last all day until the sun went down, but even in the evening hours there were always a few overzealous people who would keep the game going.