Thai Songkran Festival

April 12th, 2009
Songkran has apparently begun here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The original idea for the festival was tame enough - but it has since spawned into a much more sinister event consisting of water gun toting teens and bucket wielding men lying in wait along streets and even freeways for anyone unlucky enough to get within range. Luckily, this is the hottest month of the year and a good dousing can feel quite refreshing at times. My attempt to venture into the old city on my motorbike this afternoon proved impossible due to the barrage of water from squirt guns, buckets & hoses. It's quite an effort just to stay on the bike when hit in unison with such vast amounts of water. Can't imagine how many accidents must occur during these days of all out water fights throughout the country. I now don a rain coat & scuba mask whenever driving.

April 15th, 2oo9
I can now better imagine how many accidents occur during the days of Songkran. While trying to make my way from my hotel to where I intended to return my motorbike a couple kilometers away, a few locals threw enough (buckets of) water to both blind me and prevent my disk brakes from functioning properly... The result was quite painful. Luckily - nothing was broken and the damage was minimal to the bike. I noticed only later how my Chaco sandal was ground down from the long pavement slide - apparently saving my ankle. I realized I mainly needed bandages and a way to clean the road and grit from the wounds, but couldn't find a pharmacy open due to the holiday. I eventually just went to the hospital, hoping to buy some supplies from them. Since my Thai is mostly limited to culinary lingo, I had a hard time communicating exactly what I wanted, so just showed them the bodily damage. Apparently they understood because they plopped me on a gurney in the emergency room. I didn't need emergency care - but it was actually quite entertaining to watch four nurses and a doctor attend to my road rash as if my life depended on it. The fact that they mostly just rubbed iodine into the wounds after only a light scouring did not surprise me. I was additionally curious as to the price of such attention. The answer was 100 Thai Baht - about 3 dollars! Twenty years riding motorbikes without incident - suppose I was due.

I spent the last day of the festival with friends in Bangkok - darting around the city, huddled in the back of a truck alongside multiple barrels of water - to which we added about 100 pounds of dense ice in large blocks. The reaction of each person shot was typically an intense bodily cringe of some sort, then a cry of surrender. I only shot in retaliation or defense. There were cells of activity throughout the whole city, but a few spots were especially intense. One such area was so jammed with people that it took me three hours to squeeze my way down a single city block.

There happened to be a bit of political tension during the festival as the "red shirts" attempted to force the current prime minister out of power. Something similar to what transpired with the "yellow shirts" and their protests while I was in the country last year. The weeks of interchanges this time between the protesters, local residents and Thai army resulted in about 130 injuries and 2 deaths. However - the official carnage from the week of water fights totaled 4,332 injuries and 373 deaths! Interesting comparison.

I'll soon be headed to the Philippines to meet back up with my brother, Dustin. We haven't a clue what to expect and I imagine we're both likely hoping the other is doing some research on the area! Might do some diving, island hopping, funky food sampling...