Travellings of Love: events

Showing posts with label events. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Songkran 2008 Video from Soi Cowboy

Another effort at videotaping Songkran at Soi Cowboy in Bangkok on Sunday the 13th. The main focus of the video is two girls who are dancing and hugging for the camera, but in the background you can see a water fight developing that is probably more entertaining.

Click here to watch the video.

Links of Interest:

original post from Bargirlsrpeople2: Songkran Video: Sunday 13 April 2008

Monday, April 14, 2008

Sonkran 2008 Reactions and Travelogues

Songkran 2008 is over for good, with the girlfriend relating from Isaan that she just came home from the last round around the village. Here on Phuket it was only two days and all over Thailand varying times in between those two extremes. Not everybody was happy of course, but this was to be expected.

Phuket Sonkran 2008 from Travelpod:

"Songkran is the big new year's holiday time here. It's 5 days of vacation all over the country. The main celebration is spraying water on each other. Big, powerful water guns, huge tubs of water with plastic bowls (like in the bathroom to flush the old non-flushing toilets), hoses, spraying anyone who passes by, on foot motorbike open truck etc.
Some things I saw: Middle aged men with plump, shaking bellies in tight "speedos" parading around with talc-water smeared on their white-red cheeks. Ladyboys strutting in soaked skirts and T-shirts, laughing and splashing onlookers. Pickup trucks crammed with families, soaked, pointing waterguns at everone below. Teens dancing in the streets to techno being blared out from storefronts. 30 year old farang (foreign) men marching around the sidewalks wearing plastic Winnie-the-Pooh water backpacks hooked to water pistols. Man with Ghostbuster-like water backpack soaking it all in as he gets fired on from all angles. Kids still squirting at each other while swimming at the beach.
I'm on the biggest island in Thailand, Phuket. It's about resorts, some longstay, some real estate for sale, lots of mini marts, 7-11's, cabarets, clubs, small bars, beaches on various bays, tropical foliage, lots of steep hills between beaches. Resorts with tennis clubs, fancy restaurants, traditional Thai-style bungalows. Tiny, plain bungalow huts around a beach for $40/night."

Songkran 2008 on Khao San Road from Nomadic Matt:

"The all day water fight carries on into the night as people have dance parties in the street and major roads are shut down to accommodate them.What is truly amazing about this holiday is how friendly everyone is about it. Everyone is so polite about covering you in water and smearing flour all over yourself. Many will say "sorry" while they do it. As you get involved in big water fights, everyone is still all smiles. Walk down the street, spray a stranger, and they just laugh and spray you back and go on. You could never have this type of festival in the West- people would get drunk and start fights or riots would break out. "Hey man, don't get me wet!" they would say. But here it is all smiles. Everyone expects it.
But, like everywhere else, there are cops around. I remember walking down the street firing people and I hit a cop. After speaking some Thai to his fellow officers, three of them started moving towards me with looks on their faces. Now we all know what happens when cops get involved so I was not happy to seem them as they began walking closer to me and drawing their weapons. They started yelling at me in Thai as they came closer and fired. So I did what I one would do in a situation like this- I fired back. They got me good but I managed to soak one of them pretty bad before one snuck behind me and cover me with cold water. Three against one in a water fight is tough. But we all had a good laugh. A holiday where the cops get involved is sure be fun."

Khao San Songkran 2008 from Texturbation:

"Somebody’s going to get killed, I thought. I’ve got to get off the street, right now.
Some idiot mobile phone marketing prick, at some point since I last visited Bangkok during Songkran, must have thought it was a good idea to put up a stage in the middle of Khao San Road. Free live music and branded freebies, thrown into the crowd.
It wasn’t a good idea. It was a foolish idea. There are maybe a hundred thousand wet Thai kids walking around a few blocks around Khao San. Think Halloween in the Castro, but with water guns, and for three days and nights. Ten thousand kids are walking in from the west, another ten thousand are walking in from the east, and aforementioned mobile phone marketing prick has erected his damn fool stage in the dead centre, precisely the correct choke-point required for some serious Hillsborough-style carnage.
That’s interesting, I thought, I can’t seem to breath. I also seem to be slowly suffocating the crying Thai girl next to me. I’m either going to die, or kill somebody. I have to get off the street.
There were five people between me and the nearest bar. I’d been fighting to get past them for twenty minutes, but nobody would move. I got in the face of the nearest one.
“I’m going to throw up!” I yelled, and watched her get the fuck out of the way. That simple lie, coupled with a mime, got me into the bar in twenty seconds flat.
It was a really shit bar, and I was stuck there for three hours. There was no way to leave. In the first hour, hysterical western women would stumble in, clutching the arms of their trembling boyfriends. In the second hour, some people started breathing into paper bags. In the third hour, people started carrying in unconscious and convulsing Thai girls.
So, yeah, good party."

Links of Interest:

Songkran 2008 image galleries and photos

Songkran (Thai new Year) 2008 was -- like in the previous years -- unbelievable fun. I was right in the midst of the action on Soi Bangla, and got drenched in water for the two days straight this event is held in Phuket.

There is a more traditional way of participating in Songkran, and for all the moaners out there: it was your free choice. My girlfriend chose the more peaceful option and went home to her parents.

To get your own idea how Songkran 2008 went: the first photo galleries and images of Songkran 2008 are out on the Internet (I did not dare to bring my camera with me).

Links of Interest:

Songkran 2008 mayhem on Soi Cowboy

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Phuket Bike Week 2008 Happenings

Phuket Bike Week 2008 was kick started last night with an exhibition of gleaming custom choppers and other iron steeds, both old and new, showing their muscle in seven zones at Jungceylon shopping center. Yamaha, Suzuki and BMW have taken some of the stands to show off their latest superbikes, tourbikes and even jet skis until 11 pm tonight.
I wandered a little bit around the exhibition zone and was frankly not too impressed as it seemed basically deserted when I came; but the real action will be anyway out in Soi Bangla tomorrow and there are already lots of big bikes and bikers around -- I guess it will be more busy than last year's event.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Songkran approaching fast -- are you ready?

From April 13 to April 15, 2008 the whole of Thailand will celebrate Songkran (Thai สงกรานต์), the Thai New Year. Are you readily prepared for the fun and action -- or don't you even know what Songkran is all about?

As mid-April is the hottest time of the year, in the past people would sprinkle water among themselves in nice way to bless each other. Also, the bones of the forefathers would be washed, so it was (and is) quite a serious moment for many.

But there is also a more lighthearted side to Songkran; all out water fights with plastic water guns and even fire hoses will erupt in many tourist areas like Phuket or Pattaya, but the same festival spirit can be found also in the Isaan and the north of Thailand. Incidentally, Chiang Mai is quite famous for its lively Songkran celebrations.

Up in Isaan, the festivities have in some places already started -- my girlfriend just drove back to Nong Bua Lamphu to see her family and related to me that Songkran is already in full swing in some places.
Less taken by Songkran is for example Phuket, where water throwing will be on the evening of the 12th and on the 13th and you will get a very bad look if you dare to try this outside those dates.

Songkran in Khorat

Always good for a laugh, the Thai government has tried to tone down the fun, maybe to increase productivity of the Thai state (while at the same time it decided to give an extra day of holidays on very short notice, go figure).
Last year, girls wearing t-shirts and tank tops where outlawed, this year the fight of the police will be against the use of plastic guns. Of course, in the end this is Thailand and nobody will give a hoot...

Sonkran in Soi Bangla in Phuket

Links of Interest:

Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2008 registration open

The NRG Cup, free-flow of drinks, new boats, international TV coverage... and more is in store for Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2008!

Online registration is now open for Six Senses Phuket Raceweek 2008 – anticipated to be the best Raceweek yet – offering a reduced entry fee for early registrations. Phuket’s ‘Green Season’ regatta, now in its 5th year, sees a mixed fleet of yachts race in the southwest monsoon breezes off Phuket’s south coast every July, this year from 23-27 July. While retaining the same one-regatta-one-venue format, combining four days of competitive racing with five nights of grand waterside parties – a format that has met with unanimous approval from competitors – this year’s event brings a host of new dimensions.

Read more:

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Chakri Memorial Day

Today, 7 April, is being celebrated as Chakri Memorial Day in Thailand, a public holiday which marks the founding of the present Chakri Dynasty by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke the Great, also known as Phutthayotfa and posthumously named Rama I.
The name Chakri (จักรี) comes from the title Chao Pharaya Chakri, given to Rama I while he was a general in Taksin’s army. This title was held by the greatest warlords of the Ayuthaya Kingdom and was meant to reflect the prowess of the holder on the battlefield.

Rama I ascended to the throne on 6 April 1782 and ruled the Kingdom of Siam for twenty-eight years. During his reign, Phutthayotfa consolidated the Kingdom in such a way that here was no further fear of invasion from enemies. King Rama I has been praised as an accomplished statesman, a lawmaker, a poet and a devout Buddhist. Thus, his reign has been called a “reconstruction” of the Thai state and Thai culture.

As an experienced military campaigner, he knew that the city of Thonburi was vulnerable to possible Burmese attack from the west. So he ordered the establishment of a new capital on the opposite side of the Chao Phraya River thus creating Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (กรุงเทพมหานคร; “Bangkok” is simply the city’s nickname). In building the new capital on Rattanakosin Island (whose eastern bank has long since joined the mainland through land reclamation), Rama I constructed the Grand Palace that now houses the Emerald Buddha.

On Chakri Day the national flag is proudly displayed throughout the Kingdom. The Prime Minister, other government ministers and high-ranking officers, students, public and private organizations, as well as people from all walks of life take part in wreath-laying ceremonies. They make merit for the great kings of the Chakri Dynasty who dedicated their lives for the betterment of their subjects.

HRH Bhumibol Adulyadej is the ninth King of the Chakri Dynasty. A Royal ceremony is performed by the King to pay respects to King Rama I the Great, the founder of the Chakri Dynasty. On this day, accompanied by members of the Royal Family, His Majesty presides over a religious ceremony performed to give merit to the deceased rulers at the Grand Palace’s Royal Chapel, then pays respects to predecessors at Prasat Phra Thep Bidorn (the Royal Pantheon) and lays a wreath at the statue of King Rama I at Memorial Bridge.

Links of Interest:

Grand Palace Image Gallery

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Wat Chalong Fair

It is Chinese New Year. Among the many events that take place around Phuket is Wat Chalong Fair.
Wat Chalong is the biggest and most important temple on the island, hosting a famous bone of the Buddha itself coming from Sri Lanka.

Monday, December 31, 2007

New Year on Soi Bangla

New Year 2008 on Phuket was a blast; I have never seen better fireworks or more people cluttering up Patong Beach and Soi Bangla. This is truly proof that this season must have been the best on Phuket ever, with hotels being booked already a long time in advance.

Absolute monstrous amounts of people moving through Soi Bangla to the beach:

The fireworks, unluckily a mobile is (still) no real replacement for a camera...:

I spent for sure more than an hour on the beach of Patong, together with other party-goers and watched the show and the people. A pure happy moment and lots of good intentions for the coming year (this blog being one of them)...

The next big event on my personal party calendar will be Thai New Year (Songkran), when Soi Bangla will be transformed in a big waterfighting arena. I actually relish to be as crazy as the next tourist innocent of knowing about the deeper meaning of Songkran and just join in the mayhem...

Links of Interest: