Thai New Years

Rather than breaking out the champagne and fireworks, Thai New Years, or Songkran, is celebrated by busting out the squirt guns and water balloons. For three days, the entire country enjoys blasting music, dancing through the streets, and completely dousing each other in water! The best place to get in on the action is Chiangmai, where the city’s surrounding moat is used to fill buckets and attack those running past.

We were actually in Chiangmai when we heard about this, but unfortunately we were coming up on the one-month limit on our visas. In love with the idea of such a fun celebration of culture, we decided to do a visa run the week before Songkran just to extend our time in Thailand! We went all out and even bought super-soakers off the several street vendors selling all kinds of water toys in preparation for the festival.

The music began early in the morning. From our window we could hear the streets blasting high-beat, drum and base. We watched from the balcony of our hotel as people were standing outside dancing with squirt-gun, buckets, hoses, and heaps of beer! Most homes had one or two large bins out front full of massive ice blocks, which they’d keep constantly full with a hose for a readily available, cold water supply. People would fill up smaller buckets from these bins of freezing water and dump them over anyone walking (usually running) by!

We quickly geared up— super-soaker in one hand, beer in the other, and a camelback full of water in the backpack for backup. We charged through the streets getting blasted with water from every direction! We were literally soaking wet by the time we made it out of the small alleyway where our hotel was.

As we made our way to the city center, the town became a war zone. From small children to fully grown adults, everyone was getting in on the fun! The moat surrounding the town center was full of people jumping in to fill up there buckets and squirt-guns. It was impossible to walk by without getting absolutely doused in water! The streets were packed with these big pickup trucks, full of people and giant bins of ice water in the beds of the trucks; and they were each armed with buckets ready to throw freezing water onto other drivers and pedestrians.

Driving during Songkran is generally discouraged— specifically for foreigners on motorbikes, because everyone on the streets is constantly throwing water at the drivers, making it unsafe to drive. Of course the streets are still full of trucks and tuktuks, but the drivers are usually joining in on the fun. We even saw tuktuks with ice water bins in the back so that their passengers could partake!

We met a few other travelers and formed our own team, filling up each others water-guns and sticking together! While walking around, we stumbled on a massive concert going on outside, where the stage had water-guns and hoses to soak the audience. All of the local bars were packed with people— all soaking wet and still dousing each other in water left and right! Even the bartenders and servers were tossing water around. We enjoyed a few drinks outside with our new mates, soaking wet at the sun went down.

At night, the party continues, as local nightclubs are fully equipped with water sprays and hoses to keep the fun going! We met up with our buddies at a popular club called Zoe in Yellow, full of live music, neon lights, and more water. We had so much fun that day, and the best part was that this kept going for two more days!

It usually dies down a bit by day three, but some people carry it on to day four or five. Local businesses begin to open back up, and people go back to work again. The town is covered in remnants of water balloons and broken super-soakers. Until next year, when the epic festivities return again...