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After an indifferent night sleep, mainly due to the room being really stuffy we got ourselves up with a slight hangover. Kratos (our friend from Burma) had emailed and suggested meeting up in town at around 1pm. Laura was feeling groggy but I decided to head to the bar we visited last night for some breakfast. I had some rice soup which is perfect for a hangover and I explained to the owners me and Laura were both suffering.
During our wait for the 1pm meet up, I decided to relax and do some reading which Laura also did partake, now feeling a little better! At noon, we headed into town to see what was happening. Walking onto the Main Street, it was pretty manic. Pick up trucks packed with locals armed with buckets and water pistols were firing at the crowd and the crowd were firing back. The crowds (both local and tourists) seeing us two dry made us easy targets. Quite worryingly, one the first sights we saw was an ambulance hurtling pass with all sirens blazing. In the back were the crew appearing to be doing CPR on a westerner, be both hoped they'd be OK and not a sign of things to come.
We dived into a local restaurant to grab lunch before we were drenched. We had some noodles then headed to the rendezvous point where it wasn't long before we bumped into Kratos. We caught up and he explained how crazy the water fights are and we will get absolutely soaked all day. We were also meeting two girls whom Kratos had befriended since being Chiang Mai. They were eating in the restaurant nearby and we all introduced ourselves before heading into the chaos of the water fights. I had forgot to mention by this stage we had already bought a huge water pistol, now fully armed with water, ready to defend ourselves.
The old city of Chiang Mai is surrounded by a moat which was previously used to protect the city. A main road now circuits with the moat and this is where the action was happening. Thousands of people flinging water and shooting with water guns. Traffic was creeping through the streets whilst getting bombarded with water, people on motorbikes were soaked and often fighting back with water of their own, pick ups and tuk tuks were laden with people with huge barrels of water soaking anyone they passed. There were music stages launching jet streams from hoses into the crowd along with foam machines. The streets were flooded with the water level up to your ankles, it was one of the craziest moments we have ever witnessed. Laura decided the dress she was wearing was not very practical so we went home to change and would meet the others on bar street.
On returning, the others had holed up in a bar on the narrow bar street and there were containers of water ready to be used for soaking and refilling. The next 3-4 hours was one massive water fight on the street. Soaking passers by albeit on foot or in vehicles. We had ice cold water in our supply which caused a lot of people to scream when especially Laura chased them and tipped it over their heads. We were also battling other bars and it was like playing call of duty on the Xbox, awesome fun. Laura developed a rivalry with a girl and boy in the next door bar. They would keep agreeing on a ceasefire then one of them would just sneak up and attack! All the while there was loud party music being played and the atmosphere was electric! It was like just being a kid again and everyone was in great spirits and no one would have a go at you for soaking them! As the battle continued the amount of people slowly diminished and once the sun goes down you feel chilly being so damp! We decided to head back to dry off and meet up later tonight for a few drinks.
Before heading back out I was feeling so tired, all that ducking, diving and shooting earlier had caught up with me! Nevertheless, we headed out and met up with the others and popped into a local thai restaurant for cheap food. Me and Laura stayed off the beers after last night and by this point I had nearly fell asleep! It wasn't long before I had to say farewell and agreed to meet up tomorrow for more fun and games.
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