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Published: April 25th 2010
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April 13 - April 19 We all know Bangkok is bonkers but the craziness enters a whole new level when Songkran comes around. This is Thai new year and is celebrated with a mass water fight that basically involves getting completely drenched.
It was totally insane and one of the most surreal and fun experiences of our travels. Armed with a cheap water pistol from the 7/11 we headed out along Sukhumvit where gangs of kids gathered on Soi corners with massive buckets of water to pour over passers-by. We made it on the skytrain to Silom Road which was thronging with masses of people. The atmosphere was like a carnival but a whole lot wetter. Water came at us from super soakers, buckets, sprayed from hoses, thrown from the back of trucks that were cruising the road. Everyone was soaked and loving it. Although when you have a bucket of iced water thrown over your head it does make you catch your breath!
Another custom over Songkran is for Thais to smear a white paste over everyone they see. By the end of the day we were wetter than you can imagine to the point where our
toes and fingers had gone prune-like and we were covered in rapidly drying paste.
The most surreal moment came when we got to the fire truck. Yes, that's right a fire truck was parked up with a chap on the back firing the hose,
the fire hose, on to the crowd. You would never know there was a drought. By the end of the afternoon there were three hoses coming from the fire truck blasting the revellers. You've never been in a proper water fight until you've been fired at with a fire hose. While this was going on a group with some drums set up and began playing all adding to the carnival atmosphere. The entire street was covered in water and slipperly paste. It was such an amazing event to be part of.
We stayed at Suk 11 in Bangkok which is a real quirky hostel with not a lot of light and narrow wooden corridors that seem never ending. There are loads of interesting little features too such as heart-shaped piles of stones and random bird cage style lanterns. Coincidentally our friend Jon who we met in Byron Bay way back in January was also
booked into the hostel so we met up with him and his friend Becky. We had some amazingly tasty Thai food at Condoms and Cabbages which is a restaurant come safe sex theme park. There are superheroes made out of condoms and condom cut-outs you can stick your head through. The restaurant's proceeds go towards the Population and Community Development Association to help promote family planning.
It was a lot of fun catching up with Jon and meeting Becky and we ventured into Silom on Songkran evening to get a bite to eat thinking the water fight would be over. How wrong we were. It was even more packed than it was in the day with gridlocked traffic, massive pools of standing water and Thai boys in pants gyrating on the top of boxes. We couldn't join in the fun as we had our (non waterproof) cameras with us but had a good gawp from the skybridge.
Songkran festival lasts three days and if you find yourself in Bangkok during it then don't expect to stay dry. Nobody is safe from the water throwers!
After the excitement of the festivities we caught up with our friends Adam
and Por. This was a lot of fun and basically involved going to really swanky places to eat great food and drink wine. Adam's mum Ange was over with her husband Simon and we all enjoyed being taken to cool places. We sampled wine and cheese at the Wine Pub, wine and Italian food at Wine Connection and went to probably the coolest bar in the world - The Iron Fairies. The bar looked closed as we approached it but just has a strict door policy and as we were on the guest list were led behind the velvet rope and curtain and into a fantastical space. The owner of The Iron Fairies is a former Aussie miner who published a book about fairies and also produces fairy-related art work. The bar is his former workshop and packed with quirky features including little letters from the fairies. We were in the secret VIP room which added to the excitement of the evening. To enter the secret room we had to go through a concealed door in a bookcase. It was very cool.
While we were travelling about the city we saw the red shirt protest site which is based
around a park near Silom road. During Songkran there appeared to be some kind of truce and there weren't many protestors at the site but after the festival was over we noticed bigger numbers gathering. It is a worrying situation and has caused a large area of the city to be shutdown. The Silom area is home to many big shopping centres which are all closed and I know some hotels have closed too. It must be costing the economy a fortune and people we have spoken to don't know when it will be over. Judging by the violence so far it won't be a peaceful ending.
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