Brontekst bekijken van Thais soak in new year with nationwide water fight

Thais and tourists drench each other with water pistols across the nation for the Songkran festival<br><br>Hordes of revellers armed with plastic water guns poured onto Thai streets on Friday for a second day of watery warfare to ring in the kingdom's traditional new year.<br><br>Known as Songkran, the Thai holiday is celebrated by paying respect to elders and sprinkling water over Buddha figures at local temples.<br><br>But the festival has also become one of the world's biggest -- and booziest -- water fights.<br><br>Every April rowdy street parties erupt across the nation as hundreds of thousands of Thais and tourists don floral shirts and drench each other with brightly-coloured water pistols.<br><br>Similar but smaller water festivals are also held in neighbouring Buddhist countries like [https://www.myanmartour.com/adventure_myanmar_tours_tl302.html Myanmar Adventure Tours] and Laos.<br><br>The soggy celebrations are a respite from the heat of Thailand's dry season<br><br>The burst of colour was especially striking this year in Bangkok, where many Thais have  [https://www.myanmartour.com/adventure_myanmar_tours_tl302.html cycling myanmar] worn only black and white for the past six months to mourn the October death of the deeply revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.<br><br>"At its peak I think there were hundreds of thousands of people in Silom," city official Vallop Suwandee told AFP, [http://Www.guardian.co.uk/search?q=referring referring] to a downtown Bangkok district that has become a Songkran hotspot.<br><br>"Overall the situation is orderly," he added.<br><br>Many see the soggy celebration as a fun-filled respite from the sweltering heat that engulfs Thailand during its hot and dry season.<br><br>But the military junta that came to power in 2014 has tried -- mostly in vain -- to rein in the revelry with bans on skimpy clothing and restrictions on alcohol.<br><br>Songkran rings in the Thai kingdom's traditional new year<br><br>The generals have also struggled to curb drink driving, which surges during the holiday week, earning it a reputation as Thailand's "Seven Deadly Days".<br><br>Authorities reported 167 road deaths over the first three days of this year's festival -- a toll only marginally lower than the 181 deaths recorded over the same period last April.<br><br>The number of road accidents was also up slightly, according to the Interior Ministry, with nearly half of the crashes involving drunk drivers.