Chiang Mai - Songkran Day 1

Off to Chiang Mai on 12/04.06 alone! This is gonna be a much longer blog as I had taken my lappie as a companion. =)

Taking the North Line train which is departing at Hualumpong at 1745. Today, the train station is MUCH MORE packed than usual, as Songkron, or the Thai New Year is just round the corner. Like the Chinese, they r welcoming the year of the Dog, but the way of celebration is slightly different. That’s when many places in Thailand will get especially wet.

Songkron, also know as 泼水节，falls on every 13^th of April. The name itself means Pisces meeting Aries. It is the way the Thai’s celebrate the New Year. The idea of splashing water on each other is a way of “cleansing” one self from the past year of misdeeds. Traditional, the water is mix with flowers to give it a really fragrant scent and trickled by the elders to forgive the young ones from the wrong doings they had in the past year. But this tradition has evolved into a more “sanuk (fun in thai)” way with water guns, water hoses, basins, scoops.. basically anything tt can hold and throw water. This has become a Nation way of cooling down in the hot summer, as well as 3 days of pure fun – with splashing water at strangers or even passer-bys, to drinking and dancing in the streets, TOTALLY wet. Imagine a beach party or foam party, but it is held in major streets, in broad day light, with everyone armed with some sort of water gun.

Here’s the details of the trip… As usual, the train arrives later (abt 2 hrs late). I am quite prepared after the 1^st time to Koh Samui. The train is slightly different from the 1^st, as now there are 4 beds in 1 room (abt the size of the rooms in 1^st Class cabin but with 4 beds instead of 2) as compared to having 2 rows of beds in 1 cabin. I was pretty lucky as someone wanted to exchange seats with me, so now I can have the lower bunk (with window view). Luckily, my new bunk mates speak English as the all uni graduates. As this trip was rather rush, I only had a few days to plan it. With their help, I managed to get some more info abt the locations (on line maps only tell so much) on the places to visit.

Some fruit tt looked like grapes. But tasted rather dry.

Awaiting outside the train station are the tuk tuks. I was rather apprehensive abt these tuk tuks tt wait outside tourist spots. Anyways there were no other transport available. With my limited thai, I managed to tell the driver to take me to my 1^st destination, Microlight Fly. Microlight is a basically just a hang glider attached with a motor at the rear and 2 seats.

The view up at 1000 feet is AMAZING! It’s the BEST way to have really good view of Chiang Mai. The pilot has many years of experience. He had been flying in France for abt 9 years b4 coming back to Thailand to setup this place. It is a little bumpier during summer as there are more unpredictable winds. But anyways, the view is breathtaking and very safe. “It is not a way to get rich. But I love flying.” The pilot words as he tells me abt his flying experience. Btw, it cost THB 1700 for 15 min and THB 2900 for 30 min.

The tuk tuk driver is call “ooy”or “oil”. A really nice guy as the prices he charges is very reasonable. After the ride, he decided to take me to different museums to take a look.

Unfortunately, when we got there, all of them are closed for 3 days. Darn!!! Think I had been traveling in the tuk tuk for abt an hour before he took me to the hotel. RiverView Point. Songkran has already started and he had prepared me well with a few nos of plastic bags. Nevertheless, I still got quite wet as the tuk tuk offers very little protection from the road side water terrorists.

Unfortunately again, it was the wrong place. He took me to Riverview Lodge. !!! Well, he din demand any money, so I just paid him 500 baht. Luckily the lady at LODGE managed to get POINT to come and pick me.

“Joe”, picked me up after abt 30 min wait. Its really weird at the restaurant in LODGE, coz they REFUSED to serve me any food!! It is only for hotel guests!! Gosh! I wanna pay but they WILL NOT serve!!! Oh well. Located outside the city, on the north part of Chiang Mai towards Mae Rim, is RV Point. Strategically located beside Mae Ping (the main river tt runs besides the city centre) and the new Super Highway, the place looks rather pleasant The rooms are amazing!! For 1300 a nite. But for people w/o their own transport, I will recommend tt they stay inside the town. Coz a few tuk tuks got lost getting here and the charges is 200 baht.

“Pat”, the hotel manager got me some hotel info before introducing me to some day tours tt I can take. THB 3000. hmm.. the brochure advertisement is only 1000. There was something else tt is free. As some of the hotel staff is going to celebrate Songkran at the city centre, I am free to join them if I want. Why not? Celebrating Songkran the local way. =)

1 pickup, 2 barrels of water, 2 pails, 2 BIG cubes of ice, 6 scoops/buckets for each of us. Equipment Checked and Ready. Here we go… Oh, remember to waterproof EVERYTHING. Its really really wet out there.

Traveling along the narrow road with shophouses at the side, we are a constant target. Houses located beside the roads are armed with all sorts of weapons. It takes some skill and experience before u can actually hit someone with the scoop of water while on a moving vehicle. For those on the streets, its MUCH easier. All they had to do is to gauage where the vehicle is passing and spray in tt direction. The moving vehicle will ensure tt it hits us with a certain impact.

Beside these shophouses, there are also the moving convoy of water terrorists. They will strike u from the opposite direction or just drive past and attack you. The action only starts at the Old City area where the Old Walls were located. There is 2 stretch of roads being divided by a river.
There were tuk tuk (w/o covers so tt the passengers can join in the fun), people on bikes armed with water guns, pedestrians with water guns, many other pick-ups with the well armed army.

Our limited amount of ammo...

Particular favourites are katoeys, foreigners and girls. They especially like to make the water super cold and then pour it on girls. U know the effect. =) But its all in the fun of it. Everyone enjoys it and no one turns angry. Even unexpecting riders who r just being splashed on as the pick-up passes them. There was this group of katoeys who had gathered in a pick-up. They were dancing and drinking and just blasting music. Its like a massive parade w/o any control, all in the name of SANUK!

Where all the action is...

After 2 hours of water fight, I got back to the hotel and changed b4 heading back to town to the night bazaar. Well after shopping so much in BKK, there is nothing much to look out for, except for some local delicacies such as dried longan, strawberries, fruit wine etc. What caught my attention was the Black and White portraits tt were hand-drawn. Its amazing at how they make the picture look so 3D.

Got an unexpected call from Hooey tonight. Someone had pickpocket her Nokia 3230. ARGH… it was a present. =( Well, she had left it in her backpack and someone had opened the zip and stolen it. So everyone, please BEWARE!!! So sorry to hear tt.. =(

Anyways the tuk tuk got lost and I ended up taking 40 min to get back to hotel… It was a short but enjoyable day. It was really fun and a good experience to be able to celebrate the Thai’s festival much like any other thais. =)