Songkran: The largest waterfight in the world

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Songkran is Thailand's biggest holiday. It celebrates the SE Asia new year and is similar to our Thanksgiving because it is long and everyone travels home to be with family. Most of the Thai schools are in the middle of their summer break but those that aren't, like the international schools, allow for about a week. Officially the holiday lasts from Sunday until Wed with Thursday given for return travel time. For at least 3 days before hand people begin traveling home and begin an especially happy state where you can just say it songkran and get away with nearly anything. You can read more about it on google but it is called the water holiday because basically it gives everyone an excuse to throw water on anyone they feel like. It is a Buddhist holiday of course and its roots mean that you bless someone by throwing water on them and getting it thrown on you is a blessing so you can't be mad about it and most people even say thank you. It comes at the right time of year being the hottest part of the summer.

I wasn't sure if I would be in the city or not to celebrate so I was excited to be a part of it. Furthermore, Chiang Mai is considered the best place in Thailand to play as it it the most fun and least dangerous. So here we were in the thick of it. We started playing in the country on the last day of my previous blog but I will describe it here. As we rode our motorbike people would throw water on us so we had to protect anything we didn't want to get wet. It is fantastic because it is like instant air-conditioning. The minute you get hot someone comes along and throws water at you. In every village you pass through you are sure to find at least several stations along the street in front of the shops throwing water. In the countryside, it is more rare but if there are houses nearby you are sure to get ambushed. We stopped at one of these places along the rode near a Lisu village to play with some of Rhotas friends. They have several garbage cans or washing basins set up with a hose always filling with water. Buckets or washing scoops are used to dip in and you are ready to go. We would wait for a coming car or motorcycle and take aim. The great thing here is that nearly all of the transportation is susceptible to our water because 80% of the automobiles are pickups and nearly all of them have loads of people in the back. The goal is to get them wet or if you are real lucky, get water inside an open window.

Basically all is fair game. People smile and laugh and you in return do the same. If a motorcycle doesn't want to be hit they will sometimes motion with their hand that they dont want it and you usually respect that. Sometimes though mistakes are made and you get them anyway but they are in good spirits usually and laugh it off. You can even stand in the middle of the road and make people stop while you douse them with water. Sound fun? It is. It is the most fun thing I have ever done and am excited just thinking of it right now. It is the most fantastic idea for a holiday in the land of smiles and everyone has a good time. We continued on to the hotsprings where we were going and got drenched the whole way. Out in the countryside there are few foreigners and the those that do come through are in buses or truck taxis, we are called farang and everyones favorite target is the farang. When we played we found ourselves turning on our own kind and our favorite target also was other farang and they were not expecting to see us throwing water as we were playing with the locals. I cannot tell you in words the joy that is songkran but I will have stories when I return.

Soon we returned to Chang Mai where it was in full swing. Here it is absolutely crazy. Traffic is at a standstill nearly all around the motes. This is where people play the most. They have buckets on string that they dip down into the motes. The city has filled them extra high just for this event and people will jump in to. The water is nasty dirty but it is much more pleasant to get hit by this water than the big weapon. Many people especially those in trucks have bought ice and cooled the water. They throw ice cold water at you which is one thing in the country and quite another when you are hit with it constantly. It was fun in the city but only for a limited time. We walked around one side of the square just getting constantly bombarded with water as we made our way through throngs of people. There are street vendors out, music and all kinds of things. It is basically a fully clothed spring break and much more responsible drinkers. That is except for the farang which I was quite dismayed to see. After being in the country side so long I found myself getting irritated by the foreigners playing Songkran in the city as they are loud, obnoxious, obscene, and rude, doing the western party scene in a culture that parties in a different way. It is funny that I know find myself staying away from other foreigners and find that I feel more comfortable and generally safer around Thai people despite the lanugage barrier. Anyway, it was all still very fun. I was unable to take any photos here because of the amount of water. We took it all in and made our way to the center square and the main old city gate where there was kind of a concert, dancing and food. We people watched for some time before making our way back to the hostel.

Completely soaked, we snuck around the alleyway looking for food. We found a back alley vendor/restaurant Thai place that gave me the best food I have ever had. It was delicious and we went back a second time. That night we met some more of Rhotas, went to a internet cafe for some time, and then they took us out for most of the night. They wanted to show us a good time and we had to go along with it but they were younger and we really didn't enjoy ourselves that much, we pretended that we were having a great time anyway. The next morning we headed back out into the country. I was relieved actually to be away from the city, I really enjoy the country side out here and the people there much better. Songkran seems also more fun in the countryside to as it is more friendly and not just a constant barrage of water. I have never had more fun than playing Songkran. Look out, if I can figure out a way to pull it off without getting arrested I want to bring Songkran to the USA.

We had hoped to go see an elephant camp but we were with other people and it was not to be. Instead they took us to a "waterfall". Their use of this term seems to be quite loose because it was just a river with rocks in it and very much level but it was still fun. Remember the Thai picnic I described several posts ago? This was basically very similar. They packed a lot of food in the pickup truck and we ate on along side the river along with hundreds if not a thousand locals. The journey there and back was the real fun though. About 8 of us were in the back of the truck and we were armed with 3 bins of water and scoops. We bought ice for the beginning of the journey. The trip took almost 2 hours of going through villages and we threw water at other trucks and bicycles on the road as well as the roadside ambushers who would either hit us moving or flag us down to stop. It really is a huge water fight and we had an absolute blast. We would run out of water so at some places that flagged us down, we would get more water from them while playing back and forth. The river was fun to but I tripped and messed my toe up on a rock. I think the toenail got pried up and nasty river water shoved under it because it hurt more and more as the days went on. After several days I was able to get some antibiotic and tincture antiseptic and it is healing up fine now.
We did many more things out here in the country and but I cant say it all. When we returned to Chiang Mai, Songkran was mostly over and we stayed one more night before out train out at 6AM the next morning.

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Photos

The kids
Incidentally these are all Lisu people also who have moved off the mountain

Painted faces
The also rub paste on your face for the holiday, it is nice and cool.

Comments

[Albino Man]

Wow. Songkran looks like an absolutely fantastic holiday. I will have to welcome you back to the Walla Walla Airport with our own little version of Songkran! A drenched Drew Rogers and two dozen happy Songkran participants with super soakers! Sounds like fun!!!! We hope you hurry home Drew.