SURVEY: What can be done to improve Songkran?

[NoshowJones]

I live in phuket and relatively young compared with most here and I hate songkran. So many stupid foreigners who throw a full bucket of water as hard as they can at your head and try and knock you off your motorbike!!!

This won't happen as I stay indoors all the time, but I can assure you that if any Farang threw water at me, he would be sucking his food through

a straw for weeks.

[Neeranam]

To those that say it's all good fun and nothing should be changed. Open your eyes and look at how many innocent people will be killed by a drunk driving a lethal weapon. If it could be kept to water pistols in the park - fine.

23 years ago I like it in Khao San Road when it was all foreigners but when the Thais took over it is a nightmare. It gives those idiots who hate farangs an opportunity to throw a bucket f ice in their face.

Just wait until Prayuth's relative gets kiled by a drunk Songkranist and see what happens, until then the powers in charge, well power(at the moment) ar quite happy to let natural selection happen in the villages.

Even usually responsible farang friends go insane, driving through the city with their 5 year old kids in the back of a pick up truck.

[apetley]

Invoke Article 44 to make sure all mains water supplies in the kingdom are turned off between sunrise and sunset.

Edited April 6, 2015 by apetley

[MilesofSmiles]

Televised wet t-shirt contests.

[Searat7]

Eliminate the use of ice in the water thrown. Totally unnecessary and uncomfortable. Save some precious water too

[nikmar]

last year I sat on Ko San Rd watching the general mayhem with my kid and the Mrs. A farang lady in what looked like her best clothes got drenched and proceeded to have a melt down. it turned out she thought she could just hold her hands up and she would be spared the soaking. Maybe a warning to all tourists who are unsuspecting about what goes down during Songkran haha.

[wolfmanjack]

What do you define as traditional Thai values?

Western values adopted by Phibun Songkram or Thai values that evolved over countless generations?

Or in other words, should girls be allowed to take their tops off?

To be fair if guys are allowed to take their tops off then girls should be allowed to. There is an old woman that walks around our neighborhood without her top every now and then. I guess she is either too old to remember her top, living in the past or just too old to care.

[how241]

Sonkran means a week inside until it is all over.

Do I enjoy getting soaking wet when I go to the shops? Nope.

Do I enjoy getting soaking wet when when I go out to dinner? Nope

Do I enjoy getting knocked off my motorbike? Nope.

I stay home and leave it to the idiots.

+1....It's way too long in Pattaya. Set up special areas for the people who want to play.

[wolfmanjack]

I live in phuket and relatively young compared with most here and I hate songkran. So many stupid foreigners who throw a full bucket of water as hard as they can at your head and try and knock you off your motorbike!!!

This won't happen as I stay indoors all the time, but I can assure you that if any Farang threw water at me, he would be sucking his food through

a straw for weeks.

Anyone with half a brain knows it is going to happen so when I am out on the motorbike during sonklan I do not try to avoid the water that is thrown by speeding up or swerving. That is how most of the accidents happen. I drive slow and stop to let them poor water on me then go on my merry way.

Stopping and trying to be a tough guy would definitely not be the answer since there is always a group throwing the water.

[toybits]

It is a Thai Festival. My opinion does not count. I enjoy the crazy celebration but not the accidents.

[DM07]

I would say 4...but still would ask to enforce the laws strictly, especially the one on drunk driving.

[Ulysses G.]

ban it

Put this choice on the poll. Mu guess is that it would win.

[willyumiii]

Since my first Songkran, many years ago, I have thought that bras should be banned during the festival.

Wet t-shirts take on a whole new and beautiful dimension without the bra.

Don't you agree?

[willyumiii]

I agree that those who do not enjoy it, should stay indoors, at home or leave the country for a few days as many wise ones do.

A good time to plan a little vacation.

But don't try to spoil it for those who do enjoy it.

"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen," Harry S Truman

[ravip]

Songkran is a local Thai festival intended for the locals.

Should or what right has aliens to interfere with that?

Imagine aliens trying to alter festivities in your home countries, as they feel it is stupid or dangerous.

Naturally the Land Of Smiles has lost it's smile due to grumpy and interfering aliens have invaded it!

[JSixpack]

Seems to be an echo in here.

Songkran is a local Thai festival intended for the locals.
Should or what right has aliens to interfere with that?

It's a Thai custom, farangs should have no say. Nyah nyah NYAH nyah!

Imagine aliens trying to alter festivities in your home countries, as they feel it is stupid or dangerous.
Naturally the Land Of Smiles has lost it's smile due to grumpy and interfering aliens have invaded it!

f u dont lk sngkrn, ur a grumpy old git. Grumpy old gi-it! Grumpy old gi-it!

[JSixpack]

Since my first Songkran, many years ago, I have thought that bras should be banned during the festival.

Wet t-shirts take on a whole new and beautiful dimension without the bra.

Don't you agree?

download (4).jpg

Oh, but gotta include the guys too, don't you agree? Songkran! Here's a fine example of pregnant man boobs:

Ooooh! No bra!

Read:

But I get to see young women in wet T-shirts at Songkran!!!

Edited April 6, 2015 by JSixpack

[WhamBam]

Yes, Pattaya can be hell.

I loved it up north. One main soi where all the festivities took part over the days. Elsewhere, people - including children - asked before throwing water if you were on a m/c. So civilised !!

[MAJIC]

Until people understand the difference from fun and the huge deaths,there is nothing to say!

[teatree]

Stop the idiots who throw water after 6 pm.

[thaibeachlovers]

Ban the use of ice and fireworks. In Pattaya mid 90s it was great fun ( pre ice ), but the ice has put a stop to it for me. Unfortunately, the fireworks are too big to be safe and they throw them at people.

They should also stop it before and after the official dates. Got caught on KSR the day before Songkran started when the d....heads started full on. I was trying to get to Lomprayah office with bags and everytrhing got soaked. Thought I was safe day before the start, but no accounting for the morons.

[kerrysum]

Always depended on where one lived, from my experience.....Issan was always the best, in my opinion.....

[Chicken George]

Banning throwing of water on all roads would make it virtually completely safe. Too simple so again its welcome to The Festival of Death again!

Edited April 7, 2015 by Chicken George

[Eneukman]

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Make it one day only ... alt=coffee1.gif width=32 height=24>

And restrict it to designated areas only with fixed start and finish times (say 10.00 am to 7.00 pm).

Alan

[Thian]

Arrest all the drunk drivers. For the rest Songkran is big fun!

[willyumiii]

If Thai people were smart enough to just let uninvited foreign residents ( like me ) determine what they should and should not do, everything would be just fine, I am sure!

[Kerryd]

When I lived in Pattaya Tai, the locals only got involved on the last day. Anyone coming down our soi was fair game that day, but they would stop motos, then pour water on their heads/necks, dab some powder on their cheeks and let them go. No one EVER tried knocking a driver/passenger off of their moto. When someone of an obviously elderly age came by, they were treated with dignity and respect by all, including the wee ones barely out of diapers. A small cup of water dribbled over their hands and a little on the backs of their necks and a little daubing of powder on their cheeks. People like me (mid-40s male foreigner) were fair game for everything, even from the little ankle-biters I had supplied with the water pistols and powder !!

A considerable contrast to what happens in other parts of the city of course where people (mostly foreign tourists) deliberately target people on bikes by aiming water cannons or buckets of ice-ladened water directly into their faces. Or the other (mostly foreign tourists) who think it's a hoot to "add a little something" to the water they (usually) try to spray into other peoples eyes. One guy a few years ago had been adding chili or pepper sauce to the water in his super-soaker, because you know, spraying people in the eyes with spicy hot chili (or pepper) water is fun. (What kind of f*ing moron actually thinks that ?) Others have reportedly found that having a super-soaker means never needing a urinal. Kill 2 birds with one stone (or piss) by relieving your bladder and filling your other "squirt" gun. (Again, what kind of moron thinks it's funny to squirt people in the face with piss ? Probably infected with a dozen different STDs too.)

The best thing they could do for Songkran is crack down on those that take it too far. They start throwing people into the slammer for a couple of days and slapping them with hefty fines and it won't be long before they learn that there are certain things you just don't do. Like deliberately trying to injure other people.

Face it, you would not get away with doing that any other time of the year.

The other thing is of course cracking down on the drunk driving (across the whole country). Got a long ways to go on that front.

[ray richards]

Ban the use of blocks of ice in the water tubs,last year i was hit in the face with a bucket of water & got a 2 inch gash in my forehead from a lump of unthawed ice only1 inch above my eye.

[wabothai]

Luckily will still have the choice to stay home.

I don´t see a whole bunch of old people having fun with waterguns.

It is a party for the young.

Absolutely nothing to do with foreigners, however they are allowed to have

their opinions.

Long live freedom of speech!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JSixpack]

If Thai people were smart enough to just let uninvited foreign residents ( like me ) determine what they should and should not do, everything would be just fine, I am sure!

Actually water hooliganism is against Thai law itself:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/707843-2014-songkran-faq-long/page-8#entry7688756

and in Thailand the law applies to both invited and uninvited foreign guests. So why do you think you have no right to complain and expect redress if you're assaulted on the street by someone intent on causing injury?

Edited April 7, 2015 by JSixpack