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A Songkrantastic Thai New Year!
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Seth Familian
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Apr 15, 2002 23:13 PDT
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Sawadii bemai kap! Translation: Happy Thai New Year!
Though T.S. Eliot might have called April "the cruelest month", it's
anything but that in Thailand, where almost unbearable temperatures have
inspired a different, waterlogged kind of revelry. It's called
Songkran, and throughout its four days (usually around the middle of the
month) Thai locals and western farang take to the streets, armed to the
teeth with every type of water-hurling implement imaginable, soaking
each other and everything around to beat the heat and energetically
celebrate the Thai New Year.
I learned about Songkran about two months ago while making other travel
arrangements in Bangkok, and after hearing only a brief description, I
was hooked. I decided to spend it in Chiang Mai, which is partiularly
infamous for Songkran celebrations thanks to the giant moat that
surrounds the old city and a river that runs nearby. But because I
wanted to see what it would be like to spend a fairly large amount of
time in one place, I arrived in Chiang Mai from Laos almost three weeks
ago, intent upon and exploring the 'real' Chiang Mai before it erupted
into full-on Songkran madness. And I simply couldn't believe how much
there was to see, do, and simply experience in such a short time.
This city and its surroundings had absolutely everything to offer and I
somehow managed to find my way into quite a few amazing experiences:
learning to make Pad Thai, spring rolls, and curries on the fly in a
day-long Thai cooking course; an incredible, three-day trek that
included walking amidst massive rolling hills near the Burmese border,
navigating narrow jungle rivers while standing atop a handmade bamboo
raft, spending nights in hilltribe villages with local families, and
exploring a massive cave with giant stalagtites and stalagmites and
bat-crowded ceilings almost 50m high; participating in a 10-day long
yoga/meditation workshop set in a tranquil part of the old city;
enjoying the spectacle of massive Sunday markets bursting at the seams
with locals and boasting more excellent food than possibly imaginable;
and even jamming on bongo drums with a few Chiang Mai bands at local
venues.
And then, on top of all the trekking, cooking, yoga-ing, market-going,
too too much food-eating, and lots of bongo-playing came Songkran, an
experience that even the most vivid of descriptions couldn't quite
capture or anticipate. Between the 12th and the 15th of April, you
couldn't even walk out of your guesthouse without getting absolutely
drenched within five minutes. Luckily the temperatures soared, since
literally everyone had a watergun, hose, or bucket full of water ready
to unleash on the next passer-by.
It's a festival with an incredibly friendly and community-oriented
attitude (which is a fairly direct result of the overall Thai
characteristics of friendliness and comraderie) and therefore few fights
break out during the holiday--a fairly impressive feat for a country
home to a very gruesome form of boxing. But Chiang Mai--and all of
Thailand, for that matter--is still a water-fueled war zone during
Songkran. Trucks filled and often overflowing with people and giant
drums of freezing icewater race down the streets, hurling waves of
frigid water onto pedestrians. Cars, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and trucks
pack the three-laned streets running on either side of the moat to the
point of gridlock, water fighting amongst themselves and with the tens
of thousands of people who line (or even swim in) the moat, draw buckets
of water from it, and throw that water on everyone in sight.
The party rages by day throughout Chiang Mai, and locals often nearly
drown you with water and then invite you to join their own impromptu
streetcorner celebrations, sharing beer, food, and the spirit of the New
Year. And interestingly enough, while the party doesn't stop completely
at sunset (though the water does, thanks to a sort of
universally-acknowledged moray) it does slow down, and takes on a form
quite unfamiliar to the typical Western New Year.
Unlike the all too touted New Year's *Eve* festivities that take highest
priority on December 31, the Thai New Year is much more about absolute
madness during the day and more relaxed celebration at night. One of
the main streets within the old city becomes the 'food street,' where
nearly everyone in Chiang Mai flocks to indulge in just about any food
imaginable. Food is really as important as drinking and/or partying in
Thailand (and how can you really blame them? They have some of the best
food in the world!!), and so it becomes an integral part of the
festival, yet another way to bring people together and celebrate.
Songkran is certainly filled with its oddities as well--from the
pervasive presence of typical Thai ladyboys partying to the absolute
extreme to the early evening spectacle of the "Miss Songkran" beauty
pageant which takes place live in the city's biggest open space--but
those oddities simply make it all the better, an absolutely fantastic
festival set amidst the blazing April heat and filled with all the best
parts of Thai culture.
How did it compare to Rio on our own New Years? Well I'll just have to
leave that up to you all to experience and decide that for yourselves.
:) But do take this one piece of advice, if you do decide to head on
down to Thailand (and particularly Chiang Mai) for the next Songkran
(which I'd totally recommend), do make an effort to get here before the
festival (or in the least find out when the festival is!), or you just
might end up being one of those unfortunate suitcase-lugging victims who
were caught fresh out of the cab by little ol' me and my Songkrantastic
friends!
Just fyi I head tomorrow to a little town called Pai, just northwest of
Chiang Mai, and then afterwards back down south and probably onto
Cambodia. So until then, all the best and happy Thai New Year!!
Tons of love from Thailand,
Seth
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