Dear Steemit Community!
I am super excited to tell you about my first time celebrating Songkran in Thailand.
I always wanted to see and experience this crazy party by myself. As I was living in Thailand, I finally had the chance to be part of this huge celebration and all I can say is that it was just amazing.
For those of you who have spent extensive time in south-east Asia will know what Songkran is. You will also probably have experienced it once or twice. For those of you who don’t, it might sound unbelievable – a nationwide water fight that lasts three days! Three days of happy people throwing water, parties and everyone in Thailand is celebrating. Tourists and expats are also invited to join the madness and many come just in time to celebrate this holiday. But what exactly is Songkran?
Songkran is the Thai celebration for their new year. Always occurring in April, Songkran dates vary year to year depending on the moon but the holiday usually falls between the 13-15th April. Songkran is also the time where all schools are closed and almost all Thai’s get a three-day holiday and many travel to different provinces (especially smaller cities or Chiang Mai which is known to have the best celebration) or home to spend the holiday with their family.
Songkran represents new year but the act of throwing water symbolizes many different things. For one it shows the act of throwing out the old stagnant feelings from the last year, washing away bad Karma. It also shows cleansing and cleaning, getting ready for the new year. It is also a symbol of welcoming the rain, which in turn means that the important rice season can begin. Many times after Songkran, the rain indeed arrives!
Since April is also the hottest month, the cooled water is quite refreshing then! While traditionally water was poured carefully over your shoulder or back, these days water is thrown rather than poured. Take care when riding motorbikes during this holiday since people will also throw water on people on motorbikes. Every year there are numerous accidents during Songkran.
It is advised that you book your trip in advance to avoid disappointment or last-minute prices as Songkran is the busiest time of the year. Chiang Mai and Bangkok are the best places to celebrate Songkran. Chiang Mai’s old city is where all the madness happens in the North, so get there early and secure a prime location. Don´t you have a water gun or bucket? Don’t worry, people sell them all over the city in the weeks running up to Songkran.
It definitely doesn´t get boring during Songkran. Forget driving a motorbike, or taking a taxi. Use your legs instead! To really enjoy Songkran you should head to the city center through small streets, where locals like to splash foreigners and where you can find a lot of delicious food and cheap alcohol.
Tha Pea Gate is the main point in the city center and you will find most people partying here. There are huge stages set up all around and the water level is so high that it almost reaches your knees.
If you don’t want to get too tired, find a nice little bar and stay there for a bit. You can have so much fun with the owners by having water fights with them and ambushing passing tourists and locals.
When the sun sets, head to Zoe In Yellow, Warm Up or Spicy. During Songkran parties never stop. Just remember that it is ok to splash water at each other only until 6 pm.
We spent our time at Maya shopping mall. It´s a huge mall with several stages outside where Thai bands are performing.
There are also a lot of small stalls along the streets, selling beer and other alcohol and you will be tempted to get drunk. Remember that the weather is really really hot so don´t forget to drink some water as well.
During Songkran, the most important thing is to close your mouth during a water fight. Especially around the moat. If you see someone approaching you with a bucket of water close your mouth, so you don’t swallow any disgusting liquids. Usually, the water is taken from the moat and it is not clean at all. Many people get sick from swallowing a little bit of the moat water.
But you can always refill your gun or bucket along the streets and there, they also have fresh but super cold water.
Even Songkran means party and fun, there is one huge thing which you have to keep in mind. Thais are very friendly and tolerant of visitors coming here to have fun. However, they can get angry and frustrated with someone, who doesn’t respect the Thai culture. You really don’t want to deal with an angry Thai. Things to remember are: Do not splash water on old people, monks and parents with very small babies. Do not disrespect portraits of the King, or images of Buddha. Other than that. Have fun and enjoy.
Songkran is a lot of fun but I have some tips for you which make the big party even more fun:
1.)Buy a plastic waterproof bag for your phone and money. There is no mercy for anyone during Songkran so you will get wet.
2.)Bring a water gun with you to join the water fights. One thing you should never do is to splash in somebody´s eyes. You should in general not aim in somebody´s face.
3.)Dress appropriately. It’s going to be hot and you’re going to get wet, so best to wear something light. Thai culture is conservative. Walking around in a bikini or shirtless isn’t respectful.
4.)Don’t forget sun protection.
5.)Invest in a cheap waterproof camera to save your memories of this amazing festival.
6.)Have fun and smile. Songkran is a time where the country gets happy. It’s hard not to smile during a water fight.
For me, it was one of the craziest celebrations I´ve ever seen. Songkran is an amazing time to come out and play! If you have never experienced a nationwide water fight before then now it´s the right time to book your ticket to Thailand and play in the water! There is nothing else like Songkran in the world and it’s a must do experience at least once.
So much fun and love at one place. Also the people we´ve met were so cool.
If you don´t like to get wet it might not be the right celebration for you but doesn´t I think you should really see this amazing party once in your lifetime. Three days of party and laughter.
The Thai style of celebrating New Year is really special.
It´s definitely an amazing experience so don´t miss it out. I can highly recommend it.
I hope you guys liked my story and I would be very happy about comments or any feedback.
Thank you so much for reading :-)
)
Happy songkran
:-)
ohhh very nice these clicks are awesome.. good to see you in this photos . always looking awesome... (Y) and definitely voting it
Ohh thank you so much for your comment very nice of you :-)
my pleasure
This post recieved an upvote from minnowpond. If you would like to recieve upvotes from minnowpond on all your posts, simply FOLLOW @minnowpond
nice
please follow me upvote
iam all time follow
followed you back :-)
@leo-tmp That's called "Enjoyment", loved the way how you people taken the pictures & enjoyed every moment of it.... But one thing I didn't understand , What this article is doing in bitcoin ? why did you tag it with bitcoin ?
Hahah good question but I am sharing this account with my boyfriend and he is posting about bitcoin so that people also see his posts I tag bitcoin :-)
Using the right tags is important on steemit. There are bots that will slap your wrist if tags are repeatedly misused. Eventually, if the account continues to abuse them, they will be black listed. It's a bad thing. Try to keep them as appropriate as possible. It helps you anyway. People search through them for what they are most interested in, and using appropriate tags that are also popular like #travel will help everyone involved (author and reader). Thank you!
Ohh okay great tip thanks a lot, I´ll keep it in my mind :-)
Do you both write these, or is it just one of you? This is an excellent write up of your adventure. Thanks for sharing it! I don't travel much, and I'm always interested in posts like this one because of the content. It's like traveling without having to actually travel. ;-)
Thanks for this nice comment it´s actually me (the girl :-) ) who is writing about our travels. My boyfriend writes more about crypto currency. I´ll have soon an own account about traveling but first I wanted to try if steemit is something for me or if I will post in normal blogs. But so far I like steemit :-)
Yes that´s actually my goal to tell people my experience and while they read they should feel it you know.
Sooo soon I hope I´ll be a bit more used to steemit and all the rules etc.
When you make your own account, please make sure you verify. Attractive women need to verify even more than others. The best way to verify is to post a video of yourself writing out your account information for Steemit. Photos can of course easily be faked. They are worthless pretty much for verification. Some people will link back to their steemit.com account from their other social media accounts to verify too. For example, I post my steemit content through my twitter account. Other people will add their steemit.com account info to their Facebook.
ohh okay so I can add my facebook to my steemit account and then I am also verified did I get that correct?
Great tips I am very thankful for that :-)
Add your steemit.com account to your Facebook. That way we know the person who owns the Facebook account also owns this one. There are many ways to verify, but using other social media to mention or link to your steemit account is one of the better ways.
okay awesome thank you sooooo soooooo much I´ll do that for my new one then :-)
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STOPAwesome post!! I have never been here but hope to travel to Thailand soon <3 Thanks for sharing this!! If you are interested in travel posts, my page might interest you. I have followed & upvoted you !! Look forward to more :)
Love from a fellow traveler,
Stephanie
Hey Stephanie nice to meet you, I followed you as well and I am excited about your posts :-)
Yes you SHOULD travel to Thailand soooo sooooo beautiful.
Thanks for your comment :-)
Nice post. Would be better if you mention the source from where you got some of the information in the post. Thanks.