Songkran: Bah Humbug

[Rasseru]

I had my first Songkran in 1967 at age 9 and it was nothing short of magical...

These days at age 55, I'm still dressed in my suah mauw hawn and pakama and out in the middle of it, still fun and frolicking along with all the other carefree revelers from 2 to 80. Those who look at it with disdain and grudge, please lock yourselves away in your rooms and let your days slide by.

It's lovely you enjoy it, yeeowww, just as it is lovely that while one is only young once, one can be immature forever. However, I shall not honour your request, howver politely worded, but when Songkran comes around shall rather continue to part for lands where greater pleasure and joy await me.

[FolkGuitar]

I wonder what percentage of Songkran complainers spent their FIRST year in Chiang Mai standing next to the moat with a SuperSoaker water cannon in their hands, loving every minute of it?

I'm not sure that an out-and-out avoider of Songkran like me can be counted among your complainers, but if so I am not in your queried percentage. I am enough of a healthy-minded misanthrope to know without experiencing the event for myself that I want nothing to do with it.

In your first year in Thailand, did you have a group of friends who said "Hey! Let's drink a couple of beers, go down to the moat, and join the fun?" Being alone at Songkran is like being alone on New Year's Eve anywhere. It's just another day. In the case of Songkran, a day when all the streets are one massive traffic jam, it's impossible to get to the shops, and everybody else seems to be having a lot of fun...

[Udox]

I have been in Thailand several years and never have I heard so many people than this year (both Thai and Foreigner) say that they will be trying to 'get away' from the 'festivities' this year.

I guess the 'novelty' wears off after a while

[youngXpat]

Monday is the last day. Nothing going on on Tuesday.

Disagree old chap. Wednesday 17th is the last day in SOME provinces.

[rawhod]

Monday is the last day. Nothing going on on Tuesday.

[khunPer]

Songkran is for the young and carefree...not for contributors to this forum.

Ups! I'm a TV Forum-member, I am not young, nor carefree – how comes I enjoy to play the Song Kran water war?

Perhaps Graucho Marx is right: »It is not a questions about how old you are, but how you are old!«

[Rasseru]

I wonder what percentage of Songkran complainers spent their FIRST year in Chiang Mai standing next to the moat with a SuperSoaker water cannon in their hands, loving every minute of it?

I'm not sure that an out-and-out avoider of Songkran like me can be counted among your complainers, but if so I am not in your queried percentage. I am enough of a healthy-minded misanthrope to know without experiencing the event for myself that I want nothing to do with it.

In your first year in Thailand, did you have a group of friends who said "Hey! Let's drink a couple of beers, go down to the moat, and join the fun?" Being alone at Songkran is like being alone on New Year's Eve anywhere. It's just another day. In the case of Songkran, a day when all the streets are one massive traffic jam, it's impossible to get to the shops, and everybody else seems to be having a lot of fun...

No. In my first year in Thailand, as in every subsequent year in Thailand, my wife and I left Chiangmai before the start of Songkran and returned after.

[Rinrada]

Enjoyed it first time back in about 92-3 in the small village (Stung Treng) where I was living in Northern Cambodia .

The people had had very little fun and when we loaded up the "Uts" with barrels of water and hose pipes/pots and pans and drove round splashing everyone... even I became a kid again for a couple of hours.

Great day and everyone enjoyed ....albiet it was rather hot....

After that forget it.......leaa hie....tom tom.....Har umpt

[lubbkis]

Here's one farang who lang syne gave up going anywhere near Thailand during Easter recess.

It was pleasantly sunny in Seoul this afternoon, but Sun Day is on Monday according to Kim Jong UN. Let's hope it doesn't get to hot here.

[connda]

I wonder what percentage of Songkran complainers spent their FIRST year in Chiang Mai standing next to the moat with a SuperSoaker water cannon in their hands, loving every minute of it? Well, maybe not the ice water, but the rest of the program.

Face it.... Songkran is fun... once, maybe twice. If you're with a couple of friends, having a few pops, laughing and joking with the Thais standing next to you, the temperatures in the high 30's... and you remembered to leave your cell phone back in the guest house... You had fun. It was the same with New Year's Eve back home.

I had my first Songkran in 1967 at age 9 and it was nothing short of magical...

These days at age 55, I'm still dressed in my suah mauw hawn and pakama and out in the middle of it, still fun and frolicking along with all the other carefree revelers from 2 to 80. Those who look at it with disdain and grudge, please lock yourselves away in your rooms and let your days slide by. You don't deserve to be a part of this wonderful, amazing and carefree ritual. Life is to celebrate. You're not here for a long time, you're here for a GOOD TIME! Now let the 3 days of Peace, Love, Music and Water begin! Yeeowww!

Today is the start of Songkran -- Party on.

[Mudcrab]

Songkran is for the young and carefree...not for contributors to this forum.

Ups! I'm a TV Forum-member, I am not young, nor carefree – how comes I enjoy to play the Song Kran water war?

Perhaps Graucho Marx is right: »It is not a questions about how old you are, but how you are old!«

Alternatively.....ageing is inevitable....growing old is optional

[Tywais]

Flame and reply to it removed. I realize some get grumpy during this period but let's keep some degree of civility.

[FolkGuitar]

I wonder what percentage of Songkran complainers spent their FIRST year in Chiang Mai standing next to the moat with a SuperSoaker water cannon in their hands, loving every minute of it?

I'm not sure that an out-and-out avoider of Songkran like me can be counted among your complainers, but if so I am not in your queried percentage. I am enough of a healthy-minded misanthrope to know without experiencing the event for myself that I want nothing to do with it.

In your first year in Thailand, did you have a group of friends who said "Hey! Let's drink a couple of beers, go down to the moat, and join the fun?" Being alone at Songkran is like being alone on New Year's Eve anywhere. It's just another day. In the case of Songkran, a day when all the streets are one massive traffic jam, it's impossible to get to the shops, and everybody else seems to be having a lot of fun...

No. In my first year in Thailand, as in every subsequent year in Thailand, my wife and I left Chiangmai before the start of Songkran and returned after.

It makes perfect sense that you'd want to get away from the craziness.

There are two sides to Songkran; the side the Thais "feel" and the side we farang 'see.' To the Thais, it's a religious festival. The wetter they get, the more blessing they receive. The wetter they can get someone else, the better off someone else will be too! It's about groups of Thais getting together to share the blessings and have fun... albeit carried a bit too far, perhaps, but that's the general idea... for them.

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

Usually the religious side simply isn't there for foreigners unless one is married into the culture.

[SteeleJoe]

It makes perfect sense that you'd want to get away from the craziness.

There are two sides to Songkran; the side the Thais "feel" and the side we farang 'see.' To the Thais, it's a religious festival. The wetter they get, the more blessing they receive. The wetter they can get someone else, the better off someone else will be too! It's about groups of Thais getting together to share the blessings and have fun... albeit carried a bit too far, perhaps, but that's the general idea... for them.

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

Usually the religious side simply isn't there for foreigners unless one is married into the culture.

That's quite an oversimplification and an untenable generalization about the Thais. There are aspects of Songkran which remain from ancient and venerated traditions, no doubt. Not all Thais - or anywhere near it - pay attention to them. Even among Thais that do, millions also partake in the revelry that has NOTHING to do with religion.

I've not been to Songkran in Chiang Mai, but I've taken part or seen it in over a dozen times in places where there were little or no Farangs involved - no blessings, lots of drunken water fights (or sheer non alcoholic craziness and fun).

* You are not one of those silly paternalistic Farang who think all or most Thais are spiritual and enlightened people living in strict accordance with the ancient culture written about in Tour Guides and TAT promos and we foreigners couldn't possibly understand, are you?

Edited April 13, 2013 by SteeleJoe

[SteeleJoe]

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

.

I forgot to mention: I'm fairly certain that the vast majority of drunken (and sober) Farang are enjoying it with as many and probably more Thais (drunk and sober) than other Farangs.

The idea that there are in a sense two Songkrans - that don't have to be mutually exclusive though they can't take place at the same time/venue - is one I have put forth myself and which my Thai freinds agreed with. But the ethnic/national divide isn't as you describe.

[FolkGuitar]

It makes perfect sense that you'd want to get away from the craziness.

There are two sides to Songkran; the side the Thais "feel" and the side we farang 'see.' To the Thais, it's a religious festival. The wetter they get, the more blessing they receive. The wetter they can get someone else, the better off someone else will be too! It's about groups of Thais getting together to share the blessings and have fun... albeit carried a bit too far, perhaps, but that's the general idea... for them.

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

Usually the religious side simply isn't there for foreigners unless one is married into the culture.

That's quite an oversimplification and an untenable generalization about the Thais. There are aspects of Songkran which remain from ancient and venerated traditions, no doubt. Not all Thais - or anywhere near it - pay attention to them. Even among Thais that do, millions also partake in the revelry that has NOTHING to do with religion.

* You are not one of those silly paternalistic Farang who think all or most Thais are spiritual and enlightened people living in strict accordance with the ancient culture written about in Tour Guides and TAT promos and we foreigners couldn't possibly understand, are you?

Of course it's an oversimplification. I wasn't writting a disertation. I was posting on ThaiVisa!

I really wonder why, when someone says 'Thais,' someone else comes along and insists that you mean ALL Thais? Looking at my post, I didn't say ALL Thais. I also didn't say ALL farang. I said the usual farang participating in Songkran. Read what's written, not what you wish to interpret.

No, I don't think ALL or MOST Thais are spiritual or enlightened living in strict accordance with the ancient culture. But I DO think that all people who grow up within a culture internalize that culture much more than someone who is visiting for a few weeks, or even living in the country for a few years. It takes many, many years for anyone to understand a culture enough to internalize the feelings. It's easy to intellectualize what is going on. That can be done rather quickly. It's another thing entirely to feel it. And frankly, I believe a lot more Thais feel it than farang!

You might have a different opinion... and that's OK.

[mamborobert]

Interesting of sorts .......but why is Thai capitalized and not Farang?......something subliminal

Edited April 13, 2013 by mamborobert

[FolkGuitar]

Interesting of sorts .......but why is Thai capitalized and not Farang?......something subliminal

'Thai' is specific. Farang is just a general term for all foreigners?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Monday is the last day. Nothing going on on Tuesday.

Disagree old chap. Wednesday 17th is the last day in SOME provinces.

Presumably the topic is Chiang Mai..

And yes, I do wish it would go into Tuesday, especially as that's a compensation holiday, but sadly it won't.

[Rasseru]

Farang is just a general term for all foreigners?

That is not my understanding. Farang, as I understand the term, basically means white people, and as such does not include at all native Japanese, Chinese or Africans, among others.

[hellodolly]

I have a complaint.

I took a tuck tuck from the night Bazaar for a four mile in town trip. It was one of those without the top and had a big plastic garbage can of water. This was 6:00 tonight. I only got a little bit of water twice.

I feel cheated.

[Rasseru]

It makes perfect sense that you'd want to get away from the craziness.

There are two sides to Songkran; the side the Thais "feel" and the side we farang 'see.' To the Thais, it's a religious festival. The wetter they get, the more blessing they receive. The wetter they can get someone else, the better off someone else will be too! It's about groups of Thais getting together to share the blessings and have fun... albeit carried a bit too far, perhaps, but that's the general idea... for them.

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

Usually the religious side simply isn't there for foreigners unless one is married into the culture.

Yes. I would be happy to experience Songkran in, for example, a rural and purely Thai environment, along with people I knew, who had invited me to be part of it with them, and with no other farang about, but am not in the least interested in the typical Chiangmai experience.

[ARISTIDE]

From some farang tourists perhaps?

I have a complaint.

I took a tuck tuck from the night Bazaar for a four mile in town trip. It was one of those without the top and had a big plastic garbage can of water. This was 6:00 tonight. I only got a little bit of water twice.

I feel cheated.

[BradinAsia]

This topic seems to bring all the grouchy old scrooges out of the woodwork.

Isn't it rather odd -- with dozens of retirement destination options around the

world, folks will choose Thailand --

...and then spend the rest of their days on earth whining and moaning about

Thais, local customs, the weather, and a long list of perceived annoyances.

And all us folks who accept Thailand as it is (no place is perfect after all) --

We enjoy the friendliness of Thai people, the lack of ice & snow and horrible

bone-chilling weather. We enjoy the nice shopping venues, the availability of

great sushi, Indian food, and many other good foods not available at any price

in other retirement destinations.

We enjoy modern infrastructure without the high taxes, a wide variety of fresh

fruits and vegetables at incredibly low prices -- and yet -- we are often said to

be afflicted with the dreaded RCG (rose-colored-glasses) mental syndrome.

It's fairly clear that the mental syndrome afflicting a large number of expats

here is certainly not RCG....

[hellodolly]

From some farang tourists perhaps?

I have a complaint.

I took a tuck tuck from the night Bazaar for a four mile in town trip. It was one of those without the top and had a big plastic garbage can of water. This was 6:00 tonight. I only got a little bit of water twice.

I feel cheated.

Ha I am a 7 year resident trying satire. Not very good I guess.

But it was a true story.

[chiangmaiexpat]

Songkran is a bit like carnival, love it or hate it. After having stood on the H2O battlefields of Bangkok and Chiang Mai a few times, the action somehow lost its appeal, and I have become a bit of a Songkran grouch preferring to spend the holiday with a good book at home. Today, I found myself on the back of pickup truck going down the moat armed with a water gun, which was quite unexpected. I volunteered as "safety personnel" to make sure that the five kids on that truck, including mine, played it safe and didn't go overboard, literally speaking. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed it big time. Didn't meet any nasty people at all, both Thais or foreigners played it nice and friendly. But I think next year I'll pass, because I still prefer to go kayaking or swimming in a forest pool if I want to get wet.

Cheers, CM-Expat

[hellodolly]

It makes perfect sense that you'd want to get away from the craziness.

There are two sides to Songkran; the side the Thais "feel" and the side we farang 'see.' To the Thais, it's a religious festival. The wetter they get, the more blessing they receive. The wetter they can get someone else, the better off someone else will be too! It's about groups of Thais getting together to share the blessings and have fun... albeit carried a bit too far, perhaps, but that's the general idea... for them.

For the usual farang, it's a drunken waterfight, either to be enjoyed with other drunken farang, or avoided like the plague. Period.

Usually the religious side simply isn't there for foreigners unless one is married into the culture.

Yes. I would be happy to experience Songkran in, for example, a rural and purely Thai environment, along with people I knew, who had invited me to be part of it with them, and with no other farang about, but am not in the least interested in the typical Chiangmai experience.

Well I came close to it once. There was a Frenchman there who was useless. I was with the Wife's Aunts and Uncles who could not speak English and I couldn't speak Thai. they had a parade in which I was allowed too participate and a water fight I had with two kids I was armed with a little water pistol and they had a barrel of water. It was one sided as they would not allow me time to reload.

The really great part of it all was none of the wife's family participated the community just let me join in. So as I have often pointed out just give Thai's a chance and they can be very friendly. None of the people knew where I came from or who I was they just let me join in.

[hellodolly]

Songkran is a bit like carnival, love it or hate it. After having stood on the H2O battlefields of Bangkok and Chiang Mai a few times, the action somehow lost its appeal, and I have become a bit of a Songkran grouch preferring to spend the holiday with a good book at home. Today, I found myself on the back of pickup truck going down the moat armed with a water gun, which was quite unexpected. I volunteered as "safety personnel" to make sure that the five kids on that truck, including mine, played it safe and didn't go overboard, literally speaking. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed it big time. Didn't meet any nasty people at all, both Thais or foreigners played it nice and friendly. But I think next year I'll pass, because I still prefer to go kayaking or swimming in a forest pool if I want to get wet.

Cheers, CM-Expat

Well done. You see you are not as old as you thought you were.

[jackr]

We enjoy modern infrastructure without the high taxes, a wide variety of fresh

fruits and vegetables at incredibly low prices --

I take it you don't shop at Rimping then?

I agree though the grouchy lot should probably <deleted> a little bit. Some quality memories from Songkran over the years and nice to see the Thais at their best.

[arunsakda]

Skipping this year.

Should have made the scene...

Party on CM ..

Spirit of the long Drum.