Where in the World is Marta Senn-Diego? The 14th: Songkran Spirit

Drive-by blessing in progress. Happy Songkran!

Sawasdee Songkran ka! Happy New Year! Certainly one of the most popular and famous festivals in Thailand is their New Year celebration. It takes place later than both the Chinese and the Western New Years: in mid-April! The origin of the festival started as a ceremony to bless grandparents and Buddhist icons and pray for a good new year. Another custom was to bring some sand or soil to the neighborhood wat to sort of keep it stable…maybe someone looked into the future and was afraid all the wats would be washed away because it’s not such a passive holiday anymore.

Sugarcane juicer! Wow!

Now, Songkran lasts for about four days, usually the 12^th through the 15^th. And let’s be frank: it’s a nationwide water war of epic proportions. Water “fight” just doesn’t quite cover it. A water fight is something you do when you toss a water balloon at your brother. It’s when your kid decides to splash a little bath water in your face. It’s when you take the garden hose to your mother’s prone backside. No, Songkran is guerilla water warfare.

During the week before, whenever the volunteers of the Elephant Nature Park ventured out into the local villages, roadside stands were stocked like armories with water guns ranging in size from “derringer” to “cannon.” Some were packing serious water pressure, too, as I later found out.

Songkran is just four days of madness and water. And I highly recommend that everyone try and visit Thailand for the festival some day. It’s just one of those “You have to be there” things. So you see, you can follow my footsteps and volunteer at ENP for a week then go to Chiang Mai (the happening place to be for Songkran) and enjoy the celebration. See? I did it all for you guys.

Don't ask questions: This is Songkran!

It's sort of an unspoken rule that water fighting is limited between about 9am until dark o'clock. By evening, the soggy and chilled are ready for a break and a shower, so everyone retires to their homes or the night markets. My wolf pack and I usually had a few beers at the hostel, then trekked down to the market for "street meat" in all it's colorful and fragrant variations. We were easy "farangs" to spot: just look for the group of idiots in blue headbands chanting "Street. Meat! Street. Meat!"

 

"Street meat! Street meat!"

So let me offer some tips. First of all, there’s really no avoiding getting wet during Songkran. You’re doomed to a soggy demise. Save yourself some chaffing and just live in your swimsuit for a week. 

Just have fun with it and keep smiling! Nobody likes the party pooper who gets a lap full of water and then screeches, “What the f***?!” at them. That happened. It just made her look like a-hole.

 

Form a wolf pack. Going it alone might seem like a good idea, but with a crew, you cover each other’s backs and can arrange very satisfying ambushes. Plus, it’s just a lot more fun when you can battle it out with a truck bed full of teenagers with ice water or another group armed to the teeth with water guns.

Source your water responsibly. Chiang Mai is surrounded on all sides by a moat. That moat takes a lot of abuse from the citizens. It’s said that before the festival, the old water is drained and then the moat is refilled so it’s “safe” but you can call a cigarette “menthol” and it’s still a cigarette. People swim in the moat and fill buckets with the tepid water. There’s nothing quite so bad as walking through the constant deluge of icy water and suddenly feel your back sloshed with liquid warmth. For a second, it’s nice, but then you realize with a shudder: moat water. There’s enough clean water flying around that it’s immediately rinsed off you, but do NOT swallow it if you can help it. And invest in the goggles or sunglasses sold on the street. Nobody likes pink eye.

While we’re talking about investments, get yourself a good waterproof case for your phone, money, keys and whatnot. Forget about taking pictures during the fight unless you have a fancy waterproof phone case. Just throw what you need into the pouch, sling it over your neck and start taking mental pictures!

My last bit of advice is don’t throw water on people who are going fast on bikes or scooters. This one comes with a fun little story: On the third day of Songkran, my fellow guests and I…(you just sang that, didn’t you?) were standing outside of the hostel armed with buckets and a big trashcan of water. We were waiting for people to come by and then whipping cascades of water down on them as they passed. For the record, it was in good fun and most people were enjoying the cool water. 

How did they know where I'm going?!?!

At one point, I was on the opposite side of the road with another girl. I was telling her about my walk-about earlier in the day and some of the wats I saw when we heard a girl scream, tires screech and a metallic crunch.

We looked back down the road in time to see a foreign girl fall in slow motion from her moped. One of the hostel guests shouted for someone to call an ambulance. Another guy started checking her out and urging the still conscious girl to not get up in case she had a spinal injury. 

At first, I didn’t know what to do. I felt a little sick, and dizzy. Just a second ago, things were fine. Suddenly, the air was too hot and the arm in which I held my bucket felt too heavy. I put it down and did the only thing I could think to do and that was to stay up the road and try to get people in tuc tucs and on bikes and scooters to detour around the crash. 

The ambulance and police came quickly and I heard the story: As the girl was driving by, she swerved away from the group so she wouldn’t get wet. It’s a natural response when you’re on foot and trying to avoid danger. It’s the worst thing to do on an unfamiliar vehicle and you swerve suddenly into the wrong traffic lane. The driver of the car fortunately saw her and stopped, lessening the damage done. 

My wolf pack and I gathered to discuss the shock and confusion we were dealing with. One guy told us that when he went to a company to rent his bike, they didn’t ask for a license or any proof he’d ridden before. They just handed him the keys. As we stood there talking, out of nowhere a Thai man approached our group and waved a furious finger at me…I’m not making that up, he was staring at me and waving his finger like Babu Bat on “Seinfeld.” He said something and I had to ask him to repeat it because I couldn’t understand his accent. 

“You should feel guilty!” he bellowed. The girls and I gaped open mouthed. I didn’t know what to do. I was pissed that he blamed any of us when the girl on the scooter swerved, and I was more pissed because I knew I hadn’t even thrown the water at her. He marched up the street and I suddenly wanted to slap him, but the air had soured and the joy had gone from the day. So we all just went back into the garden and ordered a few beers.

 

So moral of the story: Don’t throw water on fast moving vehicles. In slower traffic like around the north gate where most of the action takes place, it’s fine because the risk of crashing is minimal. 

The sad thing is, while this girl was fortunate enough to live (at least we all hope she did; if Thailand is anything like Japan, they guard personal information like Dick Cheney guards his gun collection),

many people are not so lucky. In Chiang Mai alone, we heard that about 60 people died during Songkran, mostly from traffic related accidents. The previous year, someone got drunk and drowned in the moat. So yes, it comes with risk, but so does running with the bulls and Independence Day. Celebrate responsibly!

If you are lucky enough to survive Songkran, celebrate as I did: with milkshakes at Pinky Milk cafe and a full-body massage by an ex-con!