If you have kept up with our Facebook updates you will know we have spent the past few days charging around Chiang Mai with a water gun, randomly or deliberately squirting people – young and old alike – in the face.
Well, one of us has anyway. Deirdre hid from it all. I, on the other hand, pushed social boundaries to the limit by throwing buckets of iced water over grannies and ambushing five year old children. What I love about Songkran is the sheer joy of the event. Where else can you shoot water in a stranger’s face and instead of a scowl be rewarded with a smile?
A monk gets involved.
Children loading up on ammo.
There was some cultural stuff too.
I made the mistake of turning my back on this kid.
Roving groups enjoy a clear stretch of road. Once they hit traffic jams they are sitting ducks.
Most of the action took place around the city’s moat.
Cholera anyone?
150 baht? I don’t think so.
Former allies turn on each other.
I climbed part way up the walls to take the high ground. Others had their own tactics.
All alone there, Tuk Tuk man? Get him!
Kids, eh.
This girl looked like she had had enough and just wanted to get home.
This girl didn’t.
A combination of live music, bars, foam and the moat meant farang were thickest around the Thapae Gate
Promo girls on stage are targeted.
These backpackers were in running battles for hours with each other and anyone else who happened to be passing.
Looks sooo fun! We plan on being there next year!!
You are so going to love it.
This looks absolutely awesome – I’m so jealous Andrew & I didn’t make it this year (can’t complain to much though since we’re in Australia)! We’re definitely going to get ourselves to Songkran next year though. Do you think Chiang Mai is the best place to celebrate Songkran?
I’ll be the jealous one next year when you guys are causing mayhem and I am dry at home.
Chiang Mai has a reputation as the place to be in Thailand for Songkran and it was more crowded and busy than I remember Songkran in Luang Prabang. We’re living to the NW of the old town so walking in everyday was a fun battle in itself, especially when passing through or around the moat. For pure waterfighting mayhem I’d pick CM.
Luang Prabang had its charms though. Though far less crowded (this was ten years ago, mind, so things may have changed a little), all the action seemed to take place in a more compact area and there was less sense of missing out on things elsewhere. In CM, the cultural events were more spread out and, with the roads impassable, difficult to get to. LP had a local Fair on a sandbar in the Mekong that included the launching of bamboo rockets (http://www.the-working-traveller.com/three-photos-luang-prabang-laos/) and remains a highlight of that trip for me.
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