Songkran in Chiang Mai and why I avoid it

For many people Songkran is their favorite holiday of the year in Thailand. I'm afraid I am going to be a party pooper and say that after more than a decade of it, i actually leave town during most of this crazy festival and then Netflix and chill for the rest of it when I am at home.

If you don't know what Songkran is - I'll keep it brief: It is the Thai New Year and also the celebration of the end of hot season. It also is a nationwide water war that means you will be soaked all the time. The only way to avoid it is to not go outside. The revelers don't care if you want to participate or not, you will get water thrown at you no matter what.

source

I will admit that I too loved it for many years but as time goes by I tend to want to stay away from it and as much as I hate to be a wet noodle about these sorts of things I am kind of over it. There are many reasons why, especially in Chiang Mai, that I now tend to avoid the revelry altogether.

it goes on for 8 days in Chiang Mai

In most of the other parts of the country, the water war portion only lasts a day or maybe 2 days. In Krabi where I used to live the 2nd day was quite elective... meaning that unless you invited the people to spray you they would not do so beyond the official party day (which is today, the 13th of April.)

source

However, in Chiang Mai, the party goes strong for more than a week. I don't know about your but I think one day is enough.

Some of the water sources are less than desirable

You aren't always near a tap so people resort to other methods of obtaining water to throw at other people. Chiang Mai is surrounded by a moat of mostly stagnant water and this is the water people use for the battle.

source

I used to live near this moat and saw what resides in it at night. There are about a million rats (totally made up number) that call this place home. The water gets not attention as far as purification is concerned and this is what many of the people in the city center are throwing at one another..... no thanks! I bet the ear/nose/throat doctors are very busy next week.

traffic in the city center is a parking lot

Try as they may to keep things moving, the police can do very little to encourage people to move at all during Songkran and therefore you are not going to get anywhere on the roads in the city center.

source

The suburbs where I live this is much less of a factor, but in the city center if you need to get somewhere... go ahead and forget about it, it isn't going to happen. The smarter businesses stocked up well before this weekend, but it is not at all common for places to completely run out of food and drinks and simply close after their stocks are gone. This can be problematic (ironically) when the entire city center runs out of drinking water.

People are too drunk

I am a borderline alcoholic or perhaps even an alcoholic in denial. So when I start to get judgemental about the lack of sobriety you know there perhaps is a real problem.

source

This results in the water war becoming increasingly aggressive where people are actually trying to throw the water to hurt the people on the motorbikes or in the back of trucks or aggressively rubbing powder on the faces of people that most likely dont want it there. There is also an awful lot of copping a feel on the ladies and this leads to fights.

---

I'm not even going to get into the fact that hundreds of people die during this week directly because of the party every year. That is another matter entirely.

Does it sound like I am being a cranky old man yet? Maybe. I highly recommend that people experience Songkran at least once in their lives but much like any wild party, I get tired of it after a while.

I'm not trying to say that they are doing it wrong and I don't think that myself or anyone else should try to tell the Thai people how to live their lives - I am not trying to say that at all. I think it is wonderful that they have this festival and for many years I really looked forward to it. However, after my 14th Songkran (last year) I am going to sit this one out... and probably all the ones in the future as well.