Monday, April 14, 2008

our return to Thailand, Songkran 2008!

We arrived at the Bangkok airport for the 4th time on this trip. It was nice to know exactly where to go. We hopped on the airport bus into town with ease. We were returning specifically for the Songkran festival, which is the New Year's festival in Thailand, where the whole country takes part in a 3 day water fight. We were arriving on the 12th, a day before the festivities were to start, or so we thought. We had booked a hostel just off KhaoSan road which we were told would be the center of the festivities. As the bus got closer we saw the throngs of people, mostly armed to the teeth.. with water guns, alas the party had started already.

The streets were lined with people selling water guns and all around were people already soaked and shooting others. Along with water there are tablets that people mix with water in little buckets that makes kind of a clay mixture. Not only were people spraying each other, but smearing this clay stuff on each other's faces. We were nervous as the bus stopped and the driver said "KhaoSan" as there were hundreds of people just waiting for fresh meat. We made it to our hostel only a little wet, but with white clay smeared on our faces.

After leaving our bags we headed out into the madness, despite being unarmed we were quickly soaked to the bone. There were stands selling water guns everywhere, so after careful consideration Jes (being a typical man) bought what he considered to be the best gun. He figured I should be armed as well, for backup, so we got two of them! lol
Now it was time to fight back against all the people spraying us. We stayed out for hours, laughing, shooting people, and reloading our guns with freezing cold water for only 5 baht. The scene was truly incredible. At one point there were so many people on the street that we could barely move, and could not aim our guns at people as we had no room to point our guns.

Jesse was funny to watch as he became like a kid. He got quite excited when we found the many places that would sell melted ice to fill our guns with. Of course this meant much more screaming from the people we sprayed. I was amazed at the gentleness of the Thais as they put the clay stuff on our faces. They never threw it or slapped it on, but softly wiped the clay, often while saying sorry, or hesitating before to ensure it was ok.

The next day was the actual New Year's day, although the festival is 3 days long (or 5 if you count the day before and day after, as we found out). It was also a Sunday, and we wanted to go to the big, and famous Sunday market. We made it to the local bus only mildly wet and found our way with much help from the bus driver and the cashier lady on board. The market was huge, and reminded us of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It was such a hot day, so we were actually glad when people sprayed us, although the water fight was pretty minor at the market. We bought a couple hats, and skirts, then headed back toward our hostel. We went across the street from where the bus dropped us off, but did not find a bus stop, and when we did find one it did not have either of our numbers on it. We decided to just jump in a tuk-tuk.

The first guy we asked just laughed at us when we said "KhaoSan road", so then we asked a few taxi's. They were willing to take us but their prices were through the roof, with all the tourists in town for the festival it was easy to see why. So after asking a local we found where a bus that would take us to the major bus station at the victory monument. Once at the station we saw a large sign that said KhaoSan and listed the buses going there. The bus was fully packed with people going into the area, mostly locals who were going there to party. Needless to say we were soaked from head to toe when we got back to the hostel with our items from the market safely in a plastic bag.

We met a lady from New York at the hostel and she joined us as we grabbed our guns and went back into the thick of things. It was another night of laughs and getting drenched and covered in clay. There was a stage set up with people dancing, and even more people than the night before. It was incredible. Unfortunately sometime near the end of the night we lost our friend in the crowd. We decided to duck away from the madness into a restaurant for dinner. They had a live band of Thai guys who sang English rock songs. They were really good and we said we would be back the next night to enjoy them again.

We spend a lot of time on our last day at a very cheap internet cafe that we found. It was incredibly hot out and it had AC. At first we were a little sick of being wet all the time, but that evening we decided to go out again. Why not experience the fun loving, gun toting hoards one last time. The streets ran with clay colored water and people were losing their flip-flops in the madness. All around people were selling water refills or drinks, or simply singing along to the blaring music, it was a party in the streets like we had never experienced before. After an hour we did return the the restaurant as promised, but it was a different rock band, and for some reason they had the sound just cranked, probably attempting to compete with all the other music on KhaoSan. We were a bit disappointed, but we stayed for a few songs and had some drinks to celebrate. What where we celebrating? A huge milestone, 200 days on the road!

The next day after packing up and saying goodbye we snuck away from the stirring crowds through an alley, jumping aboard the first taxi we could see. The taxi dropped us off at the N.E. bus station where we boarded a bus out of the city. We were lucky to get there completely dry and without clay on our faces, but we still had our guns hung from our shoulders, as the spirit of the festival will still alive and kicking. We headed north toward Khao Yai National Park and our next adventure.

Looking back we will never forget the famous Songkran festival we took part in.
Bangkok, Thailand, April 13-15 2008.

Click on the picture below to see all the photos.
Songkran 2008

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