We have been anticipating Songkran since before we even moved to Thailand. It is based on a religious Buddhist holiday and the Thai New Year celebration. The deeply devout focus on sprinkling perfumed water on ancient Buddhist relics and monks and the elderly.
They traditionally clean their houses and visit the temples to make merit for an auspicious start to the new year. Most of them also head downtown by the thousands to participate in the world's biggest and baddest waterfight where the rest of us join in the fun.
My Man had to stop in to work for a few hours Monday morning, so we decided to head in with him. We kicked around a soccer ball and read while he made sure everything was OK at the consulate.
We had a picnic, then left the car there and walked a few blocks over to Thapae Road where the big Songkran parade was scheduled to start at 1:30.
Honestly, we didn't really know what to expect, but pretty soon we had the drill down. There were lots of people lining the streets armed with squirt guns, hoses, or buckets of water and everyone just splashed everyone else.
There was laughing, shrieking (some of the water was cold from melting ice), and giggles. Everywhere were smiles. I don't think I've ever seen so many happy people, from little kids to wrinkled old men, Thais and farang all together.
The carefree silliness was completely contagious and soon we were throwing buckets of water everywhere. And even though it was complete water chaos, most people were pretty nice about it, especially the older Thais who would gently pour cups of water on your back, almost apologetically, and smile "Sawatdiipiimai" (Happy New Year). The buckets of water lining the street were water ambush zones. At first, Funny Guy would try to fill his squirt gun at the barrels where we would both get completely blasted with water, captive as we were.
Soon we got a better system. I would quickly scoop a pitcher full of water as we walked by, no stopping (we still got soaked, but much better than stopping!) and then I would fill the gun from the pitcher of water after we were a little ways on.
After about an hour walking up the road, we came upon the intersection with the moat road (where the biggest Songkran party in town is). There were SO many people. The only time I've ever seen that many people in one place before was at the International Fireworks Festival in Seoul, and that didn't have water splashing everywhere and music blasting and everyone laughing and dancing and throwing water. It was great. Probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.
And then I looked down and couldn't see Funny Guy. Sheer panic overtook me. There were about eight ways he could have gone. There were so many people. I had no idea where he could have gone. And why?!
(Looking at the GoPro video later, we watched him look up, not see us--even though we were right behind him--and rush off to catch up to us. He probably mistook someone else for one of us--one of the fun things about Songkran are the colorful island shirts everyone wears, but it can be a little disconcerting keeping track of people when you see the same shirt on twenty different people at any given time.) My eyes were off him for only a few seconds, but that was long enough.
My Man stood at the intersection waiting in case he got back to where he'd left us. Young Man and Darling Daughter took turns coming with me to look through the crowds and down each street.
We kept checking in with the police to see if they'd found him.
Long story short, we reunited and enjoyed the rest of Songkran, but if I could erase those two frantic hours, I surely would for all of our sakes.
Note to self: don't get complaisant about making sure your kids have your phone number memorized!!! Even when you move a lot, make them learn it! Or pin it to the inside of their pocket. If our little guy could have given someone our phone number it would have made for a much better afternoon. We were all so, so happy to be reunited.
On our way back, we got to see the Songkran parade.
As we were walking down the Thapae Road, the parade was coming up so we got to see most of it. It was great.
People showed respect by sprinkling (some more respectfully than others) beautiful golden Buddhas and floats, monks and costumed groups. In turn, many of the parade participants threw water back at the crowd.
The water antics along the side continued as well and more times than I can count, I stopped to snap a picture and someone took advantage of my distraction to completely clobber me with water. One of my very favorite things was gasping and then looking up to catch the laughing grin of the perpetrator. You just couldn't help but be giddy with silly happiness the entire time, surrounded by so much fun and laughter.
By the time we got back to our car, we were already plotting our next Songkran adventure.
But first, we were starving. Although there were lots of vendors courageously trying to sell food along the streets (soggy donuts anyone?),
we opted to wait and go to a Thai cafeteria instead--Thai food never tasted so good!
It was so cold inside with our wet clothes and the air conditioning, though, that we ate fast and then took our smoothies outside back into the heat to dry.
Wednesday, we took advantage of an invitation to go in the back of a friend's truck for a few rides around the moat.
It was a completely different way to enjoy Songkran and the kids liked it even better.
With a giant barrel of water in the back to refill buckets and guns, we had constant ammo and a good vantage point to attack from. We were also bigger targets and got our fair share of water back.
After a few hours of fun, we stopped for a few minutes on a quieter part of the moat for some snacks.
The kids were cold from all the ice water and windchill from the moving truck and it felt good to dry off a little in the sunshine and snack on hot butter roasted corn. Amazingly, we didn't get attacked for that whole break.
Overall, our adventures Wednesday were a lot calmer, probably partly because we went fairly early (11am to 2pm). I heard from other friends that the moat got pretty crazy Wednesday afternoon, but while we were there, traffic was moving (albeit slowly) and the crowds were fun but not too crazy.
Pictures really can't capture the crazy awesomeness of Songkran in Chiang Mai (who wants to worry about a camera when you're water fighting?!) but we got some good video too so hopefully My Man will put that together soon. And if the world's biggest waterfight isn't on your bucket list? It should be. Until then, here are a few more pics to give you a little idea of what it's like:
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