great to see new rules for songkran

[opalred]

years ago it was enjoyable time then came frangs to make it a nightmare

it was little water tossed on shoulder for luck and a parade to splash water to people again for change of season and luck

then came drunken frangs with money to buy water guns and pickups with drums of ice water

i wonder over years how many older people die of shock with ice water tossed over them when was to be happy time

[SoiBiker]

Different year, same old moaning.

[lungbing]

I knew it be all our fault.

[jspill]

It's hardly moaning when people get shot, there were fatal shootings in Pattaya in recent years. Also there it goes on 24/7 for a week, compared to a few days stopping after nightfall. Totally stupid.

And thrusting entire buckets in the face of passing motorcyclists.

It isn't just farang though.

[Brit_Doggie]

I agree with the OP the thais are not so over the top as much as the drunken farangs are,i remembr last year walking down soi 7 and every bar had a fricken load of farangs with those high powered water guns and yeah you get an earfull from one of them it does hurt,so hope the police will ban the use of these guns completly.

[SoiBiker]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

[elgordo38]

Same old unenforced rules different year. Its like the pollution here in Chiang Mai its all talk and no action. They like to give the impression that things will be run in an orderly manner but then the wheels fall off. They have started here already this year across the road today. I would not mind but they keep playing that bang bang bass crap continuously speakers wide open. I love real Thai music but this stuff is just plan garbage and annoying. There got that off of my chest I feel better now.

[bapoboy]

break the rules

[MilesofSmiles]

it was little water tossed on shoulder for luck and a parade to splash water to people again for change of season and luck

That sounds awful.

Get off my lawn grandpa.

[jspill]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

So all of central Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya? Some us like to go out.

[SoiBiker]

You think 'all of central Bangkok' is full of drunk farangs?

You need to get out and about a little more.

[FangFerang]

I think the original poster is Thai, and if you read the Nation, there is a good article along the exact same lines that ran yesterday.

One year in Pattaya for Songkran -- won't do that again -- some twit of a Brit in a wetsuit shot klong water up my nose with one of those two-liters per shot PVC water weenies. I was sick for three days with a fever from the sinus infection it gave me. When I was feeling better, I dumped a six pack of Chang bottles in a garbage can and set it on the roof to ripen all day and night.

I dumped it on his head from the roof the next day, smiled, gave him the biird, and enjoyed a cold fresh one in the bar. I think he may have had to burn the wetsuit to get rid of the rank.

[StefanBBK]

The places my Family goes ha barely any Farangs, but lots of Thais on the road with pickups, ice water,loud music, lots of drink, fast food, water stations pumping klong water into barrels for 10 baht, people selling huge blocks of ice etc.

I don't thing Farangs ruined Songkran. It is just "modern times".....

[nuananddon]

Yes indeed times have changed. The younger groups really have a great time, older you are the less you enjoy it. So let the youngsters have their fun. As some of the posters said, at times it gets a little too wild and dangerous, I attribute that to lack of adult supervision.

[CharlieH]

an inflammatory remark and response to it, removed.

[Liquorice]

Just what are these 'new rules' that the topic states.

[elliottm]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

Quite. Why would you even want to go out or live anywhere near drunken farang?

[jspill]

You think 'all of central Bangkok' is full of drunk farangs?

You need to get out and about a little more.

During Songkran, it pretty much is.

[marko kok prong]

I think the op is drawing a long bow here,blaming it on falangs,where i live there are 5or 6 in the village and i have yet to see any of them lined up with dustbins full of iced water along the main street.

[jspill]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

Quite. Why would you even want to go out or live anywhere near drunken farang?

It's not a problem at other times, but they congregate in those areas over Songkran, coming from far and wide for 'wars' organised over social media.

[HooHaa]

It's hardly moaning when people get shot, there were fatal shootings in Pattaya in recent years. Also there it goes on 24/7 for a week, compared to a few days stopping after nightfall. Totally stupid.

And thrusting entire buckets in the face of passing motorcyclists.

It isn't just farang though.

i avoid pattaya altogether anyways, why should songkran be any different?

as for the OP, did songkran get more hectic or did he just get more old and miserable?

[Thunderbirds20]

First off, it is impossible to avoid areas that are playing Songkhran, .. it is everywhere, ...Secondly, they can make all the rules they want, it will still be anything goes because the police disappear during all this, so who would enforce the rules?

Common Sense is gone and all hell breaks loose! Garbage cans full of ice water thrown in the back of songtaos, water cannons that can knock a person right off a motorbike, .... insanely stupid!

There are people that have to go to work and are not playing ... but they seem to be the preferred target! <deleted> and Idiots rule during Songkhran!, ..... and thirdly, ...why is this tolerated for 10 bloody days?

[SoiBiker]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

Quite. Why would you even want to go out or live anywhere near drunken farang?

It's not a problem at other times, but they congregate in those areas over Songkran, coming from far and wide for 'wars' organised over social media.

Then avoid those areas.

Can you really not manage a few days away from the expat bars?

[Brit_Doggie]

You don't expect at 10 am to take a shortcut to the beach,to be attacked by drunken idiots,but wait i left my crystal ball at home,so didn't forsee it coming.

[NoshowJones]

Different year, same old moaning.

So you think it's OK for anyone to throw water at motorbike riders, and people to die because of it?

There is one prominent poster who was knocked of his motorbike with water thrown at him and laughed at

as he lay on the road.

I hope that happens to you when you are riding your bike along a Soi, you will soon change your tune.

[jspill]

Then avoid those areas.

Can you really not manage a few days away from the expat bars?

I don't drink, I just live in those areas, eat at restaurants, shop, meet friends etc., there's a lot more to Sukhumvit and Silom than bars.

[NoshowJones]

Maybe just avoid the areas where the drunken farangs hang out for a few days, then?

People should have the right to go anywhere they want without getting assaulted.

I'm sure no one wants to be a killjoy,but if people who want to partipicate in throwing

water at each other, then that's fine, but the ones who don't, just leave them alone.

[freebyrd]

I don't live in Thailand any more, but when I did I firmly believed this celebration could easily be re-named Spitekran.I could offer up a plethora of examples, but will stick to just one:

Circa 1995, leaving work at Thaniya Plaza on Silom I saw a Thai lady of advancing years, dressed in her finery, evening gown, fresh hairdo etc, pleading with a gang of yobs to let her pass. Of course they drowned her with water and pasted her with flour, not powder. As they ran off laughing she sat sobbing her heart out, it was a sad sight indeed. I made up my mind then that I wouldn't engage in what had by then already become a festival of nastiness for far too many and I never have since.

I've seen the rough side of life since I was knee high coming from a military family and was in the mob for 20 years myself and had seen it done it and ticked it off by age 30. Even then, there was always the rule that there is a time and place for everything.

To those who still play, that's fine by me, but one man's meat is another man's poison, so don't come back at me with your nasty jibes as I grew up long ago and have empathy for my fellow human beings who don't wish to run with the crowd for this or anything else that doesn't meet your shallow expectations.

[NoshowJones]

I think the original poster is Thai, and if you read the Nation, there is a good article along the exact same lines that ran yesterday.

One year in Pattaya for Songkran -- won't do that again -- some twit of a Brit in a wetsuit shot klong water up my nose with one of those two-liters per shot PVC water weenies. I was sick for three days with a fever from the sinus infection it gave me. When I was feeling better, I dumped a six pack of Chang bottles in a garbage can and set it on the roof to ripen all day and night.

I dumped it on his head from the roof the next day, smiled, gave him the biird, and enjoyed a cold fresh one in the bar. I think he may have had to burn the wetsuit to get rid of the rank.

Well done, but after you did that you should have given him a sore face. No need to worry about the Thai odds of about 6 to 1.

[jspill]

i avoid pattaya altogether anyways, why should songkran be any different?

as for the OP, did songkran get more hectic or did he just get more old and miserable?

Again, that isn't helpful for people that live there.

My point is though Thais will often respect a quick 'mai len' and not soak you, instead just playfully pouring a cup of water on your shoulder or ignore you and continue firing a soaker in the air, thinly spread over large crowds of dancing, already wet people.

Farang on the other hand will maliciously target you, empty a huge bucket over another farang who clearly has just stepped outside a mall, maybe doesn't know what to expect, doesn't look like he has his phone safely stored in a ziploc bag, etc. There's a considerable difference between the two.

It isn't an 'avoid the bars then' issue, people are drinking on the streets and at home, starting early, grouping together in 'gangs' to fight 'battles'. The number of road deaths and fights isn't something to troll.