My Favorite Travel Photo and the Story Behind it: Songkran in Thailand

This is one of my favorite photos of all time. That's me, with the blonde hair and the Chang beer hanging out the window of that moving train, and that's my good friend Jen next to me who came to visit me in Thailand after I had been living there for about six months. The ear to ear grins we are both sporting were given to us by the people in the diner car just behind us: Thai people; the train staff, all wearing brightly colored floral shirts and absolutely soaked to the bone in ice water.

We met them in the very early hours of the day when we moved from our sleeper car to the dining car to watch the sunrise from the open windows. We were greeted with excitement, as the train staff was eager to get a party started... That day happened to be the first of a week-long celebration for the Buddhist New Year; a holiday called Songkran which virtually everyone in Thailand celebrates by "cleansing the spirit" with water. In modern times, it has turned into a traditional boozy water fight. You can't go anywhere in the country that week without getting a big bucket of ice water dumped right on your head.

At Songkran, I had heard that you are very literally not safe anywhere, no matter where you are, what you're wearing or the time of day. This picture was taken three hours (and possibly three beers) into our moving Songkran celebration. Once we got to our destination of Chiang Mai, we were in fact already soaking wet (and also drunk) at 11am. The rest of day involved roaming around the city, enjoying the crazy celebration while our clothes stuck to our skin and kept us cool that hot Thai summer day!

Have you ever experienced Songkran in Thailand? Would you??

I know I would be extremely lucky to have another adventure of this caliber again, but I'm sure hoping for one and I'm doing whatever I can to up my chances.