Thailand’s Tourist Police promote their 1155 Hotline during Songkran at Khao San Road

Besides representing a great deal of cool fun during the hot season, Thailand’s Songkran Festival and the throwing of water is believed to bring good luck and prosperity for the Thai New Year. It is a time for cleansing, renewal and making merit. It’s also a time to visit family and celebrate a new beginning. For many visitors though it’s also a time when accidents happen. In order to guard against this the Tourist Police Division’s 35 branches around Thailand linked hands with the country’s Immigration Bureau to ensure the safety of tourists during this year’s Songkran celebrations. For more than 20 years the Tourist Police Division has been serving and taking care of the safety of tourists who travel to Thailand, including domestic travelers. To ensure tourists got the message, the Commander of the Thai Tourist Police Division Pol.Maj.Gen.Roy Inkapairoj joined forces with the Minister for Tourism & Sports, Somsak Pu-ree-risak — to walk down Bangkok’s Khao Sarn road at the start of the water festival. The parade included a team of tourist police with information on their 1155 hotline and advice on what services tourism police can provide in case of emergency. Then the fun really started as tourists and police got into a full scale water pistol shooting match.
M2F’s Bangkok Songkran Festival attracted scores of visitors, mostly kids and teenagers who arrived in force at Central World with water guns of all shapes and sizes.
The event included music, rides, food stalls and a huge water spray area. For many youngsters the real highlight was the foam party that ensured party goers not only got wet, they got nice and soapy. An event only for the brave….
With all this water, there should be plenty of good luck around for the year ahead.