We've heard that Songkran before

Party-loving tourists from around the world converge on Thailand in mid-April for the three-day nationwide water fight that is Songkran, the Thai new year celebration. The streets of Chiang Mai are awash, literally, with water-gun-toting revelers and curbside hosers,  everyone hooting and hollering and spraying and getting sprayed. To venture outside is the same as saying to the world: drench me.

Lian and I watch most of Songkran at home on TV.

Going to work during Songkran is problematic for Lian: she cannot run the gauntlet and then arrive soaking-wet for customer appointments, nor is it safe to ride her motorbike while being sloshed with bucketfuls of water. As for me, three consecutive nights of 2 a.m. teleconferences with West Coast clients leave me stupefied with sleep deprivation. Oh, and Lian complains: "Have pain my stomach." And then I remember that I really can't shoot action pictures for fear of frying my not-waterproof iPhone battery. We manage two or three additional lame excuses apiece for being pathetic old farts.

So we plop ourselves down in front of Thai TV channel 3 for wall-to-wall Songkran coverage -- only the finest in broadcast journalism here, folks -- and promise ourselves that next year, by golly, next year ...

Oh, and the above video? Shot it two years ago. As Lian says, "Songkran same every year."