It's the year 2557, and for 3 days there are parties and you can throw water on people and rub powder on other peoples faces. What could be more fun?

The New Year's Day in the Buddhist countries of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar is called "Songkran" . It is a 3 day festival but some cities stretch it into a week or longer celebration. It is one of the few holidays many ordinary workers get off work. Songkran is the ancient New Year's Day.

The Songkran Festival happens April 13-15, during the hottest season and at the end of the dry season. Although the countries now celebrate the western New Years Day, January 1, the most popular is Songkran in April.

The most obvious advent during Songkran is the throwing of water on others. People roam the streets armed with all types of water guns, plastic bags filled with water, buckets, or what ever they can get to carry water in. Often barrels of water are positioned along the road to get throwing water from. Even water hoses are used to spray water. Dry powder or powder mixed with water is smeared on strangers faces as a blessing of good luck to them in the coming year.

Songkran is a Buddhist festival and the Buddhist people often go to a Wat to pray and give food to the monks . Often they cleanse the Buddha images from their household shrines and at monasteries by gently pouring water over them. It is believed this will bring good luck in the coming year. In some cities Buddha images are paraded through the streets on floats and people throw water on them, thus 'bathing' the images.

The tradition of throwing water started as a way to pay respect to people. Someone would pour water over the Buddha image and catch it for cleansing. Then, using the 'blessed' water to give good fortune to elders and family they would gently pour it on the shoulder. The tradition of smearing powder on faces started from the idea of the chalk used by monks to mark blessings.

It evolved, mainly by the young people, to include dousing strangers with water to relieve the 100F temperatures in mid April. Then it became common to have water fights and splash people riding in vehicles. Today, the holiday is more about having fun than a spiritual holiday .

I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, planning to get my visa for Vietnam but my Cambodian friends in Battambang kept wanting me to spend the New Years with them and their families. So, I got an extention on my Cambodia visa instead and headed back to Battambang.

I spent the first two days with Samnang and Villas families. They have parties all day long. We would sit on bamboo mats and eat and drink and talk. At least they all talked. Samnang and Villa were the only two that spoke English. But, the entire group of family and friends would push food and drinks my way, making me welcome. After a while we would move to the next house and sit on another bamboo mat, always outside the small houses. They had Cambodian music and everyone would get up and dance in the circle doing the Cambodian dance every once in a while.

In the afternoon a van arrived and we all got on it. I had no idea where we were headed or why . It was about a 30 minute ride to a place with bamboo huts and food was served and more dancing was done. It was a great time. Somnang had to go to work at 5, so I got a ride back to my hotel with one of the cousins, or friends, I'm not sure. The party was still going on but with Somnang leaving I would not have anyone to talk to or ask questions of.

The last day Villa borrowed his brothers car. There are very few cars among the locals I have met. Somnangs family does not have a car at all, just motos. After spending some time with Villas family we headed out of to a park type place where there was swimming and rides. We filled little plastic bags with water, tied with rubber bands and threw them at people passing by on trucks and wagons, mostly. I had a blast and got some good hits in on passing partiers. A few got me. Samnang at one point was using a water hose to spray people. I have one video of the car driving on the shoulder of the road. They do that a lot here to make a two lane road into a 3 or 4 lane road .

That night we road around on the motos and visited some Wats where people paid their respect to Buddha and did some Cambodian dancing. Then, around 9 or 10 at night about 10 or 12 of Samnangs family and friends went to a restaurant to eat and dance the rest of the night. His mother and brother and uncles and aunts and children all went along. Everyone went on motorbikes.

Life here centers on family, food, and faith. Extended families stick together, solving problems collectively, pooling resources and coming together to celebrate festivals and mourn deaths. The children, teenagers or college age or older or younger enjoy being with their older parents and relatives. Often, in the U.S., the young people don't want to spend a lot of time with the parents or older generations, but this culture is totally different. When the children start working most of their salary goes to the family pot to pay rent and other needs for the family members .

With the New Year holiday over, it was time for more exploring. A trip out of Battambang 16 miles takes us through the countryside dotted with grape vinyards. We are headed to  one of the more popular temples in the area. It is called Phnom Banan.  As you come close to it you see 5 towers, reminding me of Angkor Wat. The temple sits on the top of the mountain 1/4 mile high. There are 350 steps to climb. Nagas (serpent/dragon icons) line each side of the stairs we climb.

I go to each of the five towers and look out at the view from the hilltop. There are rice fields with small villages and sugar palm trees. It is a great view.In the distance is a mountain shaped like a crocodile, Crocodile Mountain.

This Wat was built in the 11th century and during the Khmer Rouge years it was used as a military site. There is still an anti-aircraft gun positioned at the top.

Down the side of the mountain is a cave .  You are advised to always stay on the path- there may still be undiscovered land-mines. You have to crawl through on your stomach a couple of times, then you wind up in two large airy caves. There is water dripping from a stalactite and it falls into a bowl below. Local legend says that drinking this water leads to knowledge of the past, present, and future.

It was another good day with Samnang and Villa. They have been a lot of fun and taken me places I would not have seen on my own.

I discovered another delicious fruit. The Cambodians can never tell me what it is called in English, even the people selling it. But, they do let me taste the fruit to see if I want to buy some. I try to look it up on the internet to find it's name. This fruit is called Rambutan. It comes from an evergreen tree. It has a leathery red skin and is covered with spines. The spines are soft, though, and not sticky at all. You peel it and eat it or use it in jams . It is one I buy often now. I buy a kilo and share it with the Cambodians at the hotel or other Cambodian friends I see. Everyone loves it.

One day as I was walking around town there was a big parade going on. I asked one of the Cambodians what it was. They could not explain it in English. I looked it up on the news site on the internet. I found out it was a memorial parade for the day Buddha died. It was huge. There were school kids and military and monks and hundreds of others walking in this parade. It went on forever, it seemed.

I took a picture of a hotel in Battambang. It is one of the prettiest building I have seen. Maybe because it is blue and my favorite color. It is on the Sangker River in Battambang. Of course, pictures never do things justice. The other favorite building of mine is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is a bank building, also blue. I think these two buildings are the prettiest I have seen anywhere.