Thailand

A few days after my Bangkok Songkran experience I had made it to the ancient city of Sukhothai to check out the ruins of the 12th and 13th century capital of the Thai kingdom.

The ruins were all in park areas with beautiful landscaped gardens, ancient trees, ponds and lots of flowers. I rented a bike and rode around the ruins for two days with my new German friends, Christian and Martin.

While biking and sweating it out in the afternoon sun a Thai family eating in their yard by the roadside invited us to join them. We did and shared some food and beer and had a stilted conversation in English with our few words of Thai thrown in. After 20 minutes it was apparent that the family was preparing for some sort of ritual and they invited the three of us to participate. It was amazing, about 4 or 5 ancient and beautifully wrinkled women sat down on chairs in front of their house next to a little shrine with a Buddha statue.

The other 20 or so family members (and the three of us) lined up to pour water on the Buddha image and then on the women in a much ritualized fashion, and some of the younger women even bathed the women's backs. It was beautiful and I was so honored to have been invited. We sat with them and were offered lots of whisky, beer and some food as well, then said farewell.

Not half an hour later the three of us tourists were beckoned over by another group of Thais sitting in a beautiful spot by a pond and some of the ruins. We went over and found out that they were a group of deaf Thai people who were all communicating by sign language. With absolutely no reference point or any language in common, but a Thai phrasebook, pen and paper, more whiskey and lots of laughter and smiles we somehow had a conversation. It was rough going, but a very rewarding experience.

I was able to experience the hedonistic party side of Songkran in Bangkok as well as the more sacred and spiritual side a few days later as I was touring the ancient ruins of Sukothai, about 8 hours by train to the north of Bangkok.

The festivities in Bangkok kicked off on the night of April 11th with a very formal and sanitized government sponsored show in the public park. It featured a sound and light show, traditional Thai dance and songs, fables and a tribute to the much beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej. It was good clean family fun.

This in no way prepared me for the scene around my hostel the next morning the massive backpacker center of Khao San Rd. It was like a cross between Marti Gras (Khao San being the equivalent of Bourbon St.) and MTV Beach Party attended by tourists and Thai’s alike from age 10 to 80. There were bands in the streets, foam machines, DJ’s, lots and lots of cheap beer and dancing girls up on speakers. So of course I bought myself a cheap water gun and dived into the fray. Unfortunately I was not able to get any pictures as my camera would have been destroyed the moment I took it out of my bad.

So you will have to mentally picture thousands of Thai people and tourists roaming the streets all day having massive water gun battles or just turning hoses on one another. The streets around Khao San were closed off to cars and were completely jam-packed with people from morning till late into the night. Even the shops and restaurants alone the streets were scenes of water gun battles with people darting in among the tables to shoot their victims and running off. Other than the water guns the second great theme of Songkran is smearing talc paste on one another’s faces and bodies. There were countless roving bands of teenagers smearing talcum powder mixed with water on everyone's face who passed by with a smile and a "Happy New Year" in broken English. My favorite revelers were the skinny shirtless teenage guys plastered with talc from head to toe running around in frenzy and pasting anyone who came in their reach.

The rest of the city outside of Khao San was the scene of drive-by water battles between pick up trucks and groups on the street corners. The pickups, laden with 10-20 “armed” people in the back and massive garbage bins full of water would pull up to a group on the corner and everyone would thoroughly soak each other for a few minutes before the truck would drive off to the next corner. It is impossible to stay dry during the 5-6 days of Songkran, which is actually a relief in the 100 degree F (40+ C) heat of Thailand in April.