Foreign visitors to Thailand have but one option during Songkran – embrace, embrace, embrace. Tourists are special targets during the festivities and young Thais will make an extra effort to pour ice cold water down the back of your shirt if they see you pass by. Khao San Road, Bangkok’s backpacker ghetto, is the place to be for all-out street fights with thousands of Thais and foreigners armed with water guns and cans of beer, battling both the heat and each other. This year, the military junta confiscated thousands of red buckets distributed by people close to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the weeks leading up to the celebrations. People using these red buckets to splash water or pose in front of a camera risk prosecution for sedition and up to seven years in jail. It is unclear how enforced the suppression of what the junta deems as divisive or immoral will be, but as the military has just been handed sweeping new powers to arrest citizens for a wide variety of crimes and infractions, caution is advised.