Songkran at my grandpa's house

During Songkran (Thai New Year) holidays, I went to Suphanburi to visit my grandparents. We took a night train on April 11th from Trang to Bangkok. The train was supposed to reach Hualampong station in Bangkok at 8.30 am on the 12th but it was delayed because the earlier train somehow missed the rail and fell off the track. Luckily, nobody was hurt but it resulted in about 7-8 hour delay for the later trains. So my mom and I didn’t get to our destination until 4.30 pm, almost 24 hour journey!

Once I entered the house of my grandpa’s where I was about 3 weeks ago, I was amazed by the huge changes that was done for Songkran. My grandpa paid quite a lot of money to transform an empty space in the middle of the house into a beach volleyball court with the sun shelter over the top. It was money well spent though. I have to say that because I later had a lot of fun with it. The reason behind such an expensive construction was that so the grandchildren can play sports with each other while coming to visit him. It worked very well as my cousins are in the age of unlimited energy and really like playing. However, the only drawback was that I had to be the one entertaining the kids by playing with them because I’m the only adult who is the closest to their age (the eldest among my cousins was 12!). Anyway, it was pretty fun playing with them despite the fact there were 6 of these little kids constantly wanting me to play with each of them one after another. We played volleyball (without rules as some of my cousins can barely hit the ball), badminton, table tennis, cycling and boardgames. I was totally exhausted by the end of the 2 day event (13th-14th).

In the morning of the 13th of April, we all paid a respect to my grandparents by giving them flower (jasmine) garlands and watering their hands with scented water. Some of my aunts and uncles came later at night as they have to travel from work or to the other side of their family first. I have 4 aunts and 4 uncles, all are younger than my mother. Four of them are married and have kids so you can imagine how big the family are when everyone gat together. I never fancy a big family but once I saw all my uncles and aunts and their kids together with my grandparents, it felt so warm that I wouldn’t want it in any other way. I’m glad that my mom has a very warm and loving family despite all the hardship they faced when they were young. And of course, lucky me! =D

Thai tradition of watering the hands of our elderly


All the flower garlands that were given to my grandparents


Playing sport with my little cousins, aunts and uncles


My big family