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

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
• Phuket Bike Week Event Schedule during Songkran 2008
  
• Are you ready for Songkran 2008?

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
  

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:

• Songkran in Khorat (Gallery)

• Songkran in Phuket (Gallery)

• Songkran in Krabi (Gallery)

• Songkran in Chiang Mai (Gallery)

• Hotel specials and free night offers for Songkran

• PVC pump tubes, high pressure waterguns banned for Songkran

• Songkran.Net -- lots of interesting info around Songkran
  

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:

• Patong Beach
  
• Patong Nightlife
• Patong New Year Videos on YouTube