Sarah+Entry+1

I can not believe that i am finally in Thailand, i have been planning to travel here for years!!! This is a map of Thailand.

Thailand's flag: A description of the flag is that the red is said to represent the blood of life, white the purity of the Buddisht faith, and blue the monarchy. The flag is ceremoniously raised each morning at 8 am and lowered at 6 pm.

I have learnt the people in Thailand do not celebrate New Years at the same time as us in Australia, in Thailand New Years is the most celebrated holiday, which is called Songkran and is also known as "Water Festival". The festival is celebrated with water. As the festival falls during the hottest period of the season. Songkran starts on April 13 and lasts for three to ten days. The word Songkran in Thai means "move" or "change place", as this is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. The three days of this festival have special names and on this days people in Thailand do their traditions. The descriptions are from Toni Dabbs. This is part of the New Year celebrations!!!
 * April 12** - //Wan Sungkharn Lohng// is a day that is the day to prepare for the New Year. Most people clean their houses and burn all the "refuse" to give themselves a fresh start for the New Year.
 * April 13** - //Wan Nao// is when people prepare cooked meals and preserved food to take to monks at the local temples and monasteries the following day. That afternoon the people get dressed up and going to "raise the temples grounds", this is where they bring sand to the temple grounds, shaping it into pagoda-like piles, which they decorate with offerings of candles, flags, flowers and joss sticks.
 * April 14** - //Wan Payawan// this is when people dress in new clothing and go to their temple, taking the food they have prepared for the monks, where they are placed in the monks' alms bowls. In the afternoon the Buddha statues from the temples are moved to open-air, where worshipers sprinkle them with holy water.
 * April 15** - //Wan Parg-bpee// is when respect is paid to the ancestors, elders and other persons deserving respect because of their age or position and even services are held in memeory of the dead or offerings are made to guardian spirits.

An entry from 43 places, describes the New Years in Thailand as "We arrived at the beginning of April which was the start of their Water Festival – a New Year ceremony, we were lucky, it was amazing! Imagine the world’s largest water fight and then times that by 100! Everyone was throwing water and connoctions of flour and water and gunge all mixed up, kids were squirting it out of guns and lorries were driving by filled with stuff to throw over everyone!Bangkock has never been so mad…" He makes it sound like so much fun, i can not wait until it is on!!! While at the New Year festival it was a little hard to communicate with people as most of them where speaking Thai, but people realised that we didn't understand and greeted us and directed us where more parts of the New Years ceremony was. The people in Thailand are nice people. Whoever, while we where in the street many people came up to us trying to sell us things. It got a bit annoying after a while.