Songkran is the Thai New Year celebration, which lands on April 13-16. I really had no idea what this festival entailed. At school we had a little celebration, which included a morning ceremony, games, and an afternoon water fight. The morning ceremony had many of the student’s parents in attendance. Students lined up to pour water in the hands of the adults to pay their respects to the elderly (or this is what I interpreted). Well, Songkran in Bangkok is nothing like at my school.
I planned to go to Bangkok for Songkran because Chang Mai, where much of the country goes for this event, was covered in smoke and smog and it was suggested by the US government not to go (Well my Dutch friends went and had a blast, thanks US embassy). Anyway, as I was saying, Bangkok for Songkran. I failed to realize the magnitude of Songkran. Honestly, it’s just one big water fight. Literally, an entire nation buys water guns, buckets, anything that can possibly hold water and has the world’s largest water fight. Bangkok is a city of 12 million people, I’d say 11.94 million of those people were in the streets getting wet and the other sixty thousand were in the hospital from water related injuries. The thing is, it’s not just water they’re throwing, but a power substance that mixes with the water to create a paste. This paste is smeared all over people’s faces and clothing, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
My plans were to go down to Kow Sahn road (the Euro-backpacker strip) with some friends to join in the festivities. We took a tuk-tuk (think ric-shaw with a motor), which is exposed to the world. My three friends and I hopped in excited for the event. Little did we know, we’d get extremely wet, BEFORE arriving at Kow Sahn road. The streets of Bangkok were littered with entire Thai families, hoses, 10 gallon buckets, and even water bottles. When our tuktuk would approach one of these families, the tuktuk would sloooow down, in order for the families to have enough time to douse us with water. I’d try to have a conversation then, BAM, out of nowhere I’m hit with a bucket of water. That’s not the worst part; some people are just downright mean and put ice in their water. Warm water, cold water, warm water, cold water, it just wasn’t a healthy mix. After what seemed like an hour, we arrived at our final destination.
Kow Sahn road was unbelievable. Nearly indescribable, I will do my best to articulate the madness. For any Madisonians (is that what we are? Madisonites?) out there, imagine Halloween on State Street (except not this years, stupid Mayor Dave), Mifflin St block party, and the John Kerry rally from a year ago all on State street. Non-Madisonians, imagine a quarter of a million people down one street, four blocks long. Absolutely packed, wall to wall with people, if you have even a mild case of claustrophobia this is NOT for you. Here on the streets, where people are leaving their inhibitions behind is where that sludge comes in. Not only are people going crazy, not really moving, but they are smearing stranger’s faces with this sludge. Some people are kind, and wipe it gently on your cheeks. Others are complete dicks and take a handful and smear it all over your face. This crap is in your mouth and eyes, stinging the living bejesus out of your eyes. It tastes like crap too. Playing with water = fun. Playing with sludge = no fun. That in a nutshell is Songkran.
P.S. These last two posts have been made despite my settings mysteriously being changed to Thai. I can’t read these characters so it’s been somewhat of a guessing game to post. However, persisted through the inconvenience to provide these entries for my beloved readers.
