"APRIL showers" is an expression many westerners are familiar with, but a soaking here in Thailand in April is rather a different matter.

April, the hottest and driest month of the year in Thailand, when temperatures can soar above 40C, brings the Songkran festival, originally the gentle welcoming of the Thai New Year, when families would honour their parents by pouring small libations of oil and water over their parents' and elders' hands. Visitors to temples would also pour water over images of the Lord Buddha, and these practices still go on today,

But outside madness reigns. Songkran is now more well know for the raucous celebration in which everyone in the country spends three days and nights trying their very best to soak everyone else.

It's a great way to cool off from the unrelenting heat and the let your hair down, and its really why the festival evolved into what it is today. Everyone, local or visitor, is not just welcome to join in, but is actively pulled into the fray.

Anyone out on the street is a fair target for the gangs of youngsters on motorcycles armed with buckets, hosepipes, and pump-action water guns, so make sure you are not dressed up in your finest between April 13 and April 15 when the action takes place every year across most of the country. Even the poor cops in their skin tight uniforms can't escape a watering down!

Crowds block the roads and invite you to get soaked, and to soak them too. It has been known for youngsters to stop buses and put a hosepipe through the door! Waterfights take place everywehere, but are always good natured. If you don't like getting wet you'd better stay indoors, but you might be considered a misery!

One of the most popular places to experience this sometimes wild and wacky festival is without doubt the northern capital of Chiang Mai, home to some of the nation's cutest guys, especially when they're wet through and having a great time!

Pattaya and a few other places turn out for Sonkran a week later than everywhere else, and it is impossible to go more than a few meters without getting soaked by friendly well wishers. A drive along the main Sukhumvit highway in Pattaya can take several hours as the four lane road is blocked by pickup trucks full of water drums, and crowds fighting with pump action waterguns - all being refilled by a fleet of water tankers bringing in fresh supplies!

The night before the three day Songkran holiday begins, Bangkok starts to empty as hundreds of thousands of people head back to their home towns and villages. The result is often that the main roads leading out of the city are clogged for many hours with a mass of overloaded buses and pick-up trucks packed with folks determined to get home and celebrate with their families and friends.

During Songkran, where ever you go, you'll be set upon by groups of young men on motorcycles or in the back of pick-up trucks carrying large water drums, dowsing all with huge amounts of water, often mixed with a local talc. During the evening the frolicking often ends in a party with singing and some rather heavy but good natured drinking going on well into the small hours.

While its not a gay festival, the site of all those young men in wet shirts, or just in wet shorts, is definately worth a soaking!