Songkran Day 1 (Sort of)

Hi folks. Quick update on the holiday. Here's a link to what the Thai New Year is all about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_New_Year
Songkran officially begins today, but since yesterday was a Saturday, water throwing began yesterday. We stayed at home until midday when I took my first drive in the city. We have a right-hand drive car, and it's harder to adjust to that than to the aggressive Thai drivers. Pat, Sawyer, and I drove to the Starbucks on Langsuan and got a couple drinks. It's a really huge freestanding Starbucks under big shady trees and with lots of windows and comfy seats. Sawyer had fun with his sippy cup flirting with the ladies clearing the tables. A couple adorable kiddies were waving at Sawyer the whole time we were in line, chanting, "Baby, baby baby!" He didn't warm up to them until they were about to leave. After that, we drove to Lumpini Park and enjoyed the unusual quiet. Usually, Lumpini is bustling with old people playing majhong or chess, runners, people doing aerobics and Tai Chi... Because of the holiday, it was very serene and open. It was also super hot, about 98 degrees, so we didn't last long. A few little kids squirted us with squirt guns which felt really good.

The rest of the day we just sat around the house. Around 5:00 I decided that we were going to need to make mojitos, so I decided to brave Soi 11 and walk to Villa Market. I walked into the elevator on my way out and noticed a lot of water drops on the floor. Before I got to the exit of our building, I saw one of our new friends, Mary Beth. We always run into each other but haven't gotten to hang out much. She was coming back from Villa and was just starting to dry off. She warned me to stay away from Hilary Bar, one of the "sexy lady" spots on 11. How weird it was to walk to the store and have butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of what may come. Turning onto 11 I could see the spray of Hilary Bar which is half way down the street. A few street vendors had squirt guns and gave friendly sprays. Coming closer to Hilary on the right, I crossed the street to the left-hand side so that I wouldn't get sprayed. On guy was onto me and ran across the street with a big super-soaker and got my face and head. He was part of a huge group of people who had hoses, buckets, and water guns. If you pass on motorbike or in a tuk tuk, you definitely get nailed. They had music blaring and were cheering. How could I be a bad sport when everyone was having so much fun? A few seconds after the Hilary guy sprayed me, a Thai guy came up on my right wit a bucket and motioned that he'd only give me a little splash. This is typical from what I hear. He gave a little splash, but the moment my back was to him, he dumped the ice water down my back and another guy ran up and mashed flour in my face and hair! What looked like flour must not have been flour, it smelled like deodorant soap. All I could do was laugh and keep running toward Villa. On the way back from the store I got the same treatment.

Today we have a babysitter for Sawyer and are going out for the full experience...probably minus pictures since we don't want to get our cameras soaked. I'll manage some before this is over, somehow.