Emily enjoying Songkran in Thailand

Week 6 – Songkran


This part of the year is the hottest in Thailand.... and the past week has brought welcome relief. This week can be summed up with one word: Songkran.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the NGO was in shut down mode, and dedicated, purely and simply, to Songkran. Songkran is the Thai New Year festival, and has turned into a huge water fight that happens for days and takes over all other activities.
On Tuesday morning, we were told to arm ourselves with weapons, and we all clamoured into three separate utes to head into town (one without a roof, two with roofs). Packed into the back of the utes were about 9 or 11 people, a big plastic tub full to the brim of water, and our array of weapons – plastic buckets, plastic half buckets used to flush the toilets, and water pistols with special water tanks strapped onto backs. As we headed into town, people and children were clustered at points along the way in formidable armies with hoses, buckets and big tubs of water. Our driver would slow down and we were ruthlessly soaked about five minutes into our journey. We retaliated, scooping water out of the tub, yelling ‘LEFT!’ and ‘RIGHT!’ depending on where the next group of people were.
As we drove closer into town, the traffic crawled. There were so many cars, with heaps of people wearing Hawaiian shirts, which everyone dons for Songkran. I wore a pink one, as that was the kitchest I could think of. As we passed trucks, we would throw water all over people. Some sprayed us with powerful hoses. At ten metre intervals along the main street, group after group of people would throw water at you, and yell with delight especially if you reacted really well to the soaking.
As you went down the street, music would blare from little stages set up beside the road, and everyone would start dancing. The cars were so lined up that we would crawl up next to another car and dump water on peoples heads, and both trucks of people would be screaming with the water going back and forth. Beside the road, huge blocks of ice about 2 feet long were for sale, which you could put into your tubs so the water was extra cold. As we drove along, you could definitely tell who had invested in ice. It was sharp pain, slapping you across the back as we drove.
Eventually, we invested in ice of our own. Our truck broke down in the middle of the street, and we had to push it to the side, and while we were waiting for it to recover, went and bought a big block of ice. We ran out of water ‘may mii nam’ (don’t have water) and so we were going around petitioning other people for water. One girl told me, if you drink this whisky i will give you water’. I didn’t take her up on it....
Towards the end of the days of Songkran, the truck was filled about three inches deep with water in the back. As we drove home, the wind was so cold, and we would try and take refuge from people still on the prowl by appealing for mercy saying ‘may mii nam!! May mii! May mii!’ while chewing on lukewarm corn cobs.
Everything came to a total stop this week. In the middle of all this, I managed to submit a funding application which required signatures from people not at the NGO because of Songkran, which was a challenge....
This week, I go on sex education camp. The other day, I walked past my friend Bon, and said ‘khun tham aray?’ (what are you doing?) He looked incredibly sheepish. ‘khun tham aray?’ I said again. I walked over, and there he was with a machete, carving 5 wooden penises. I was like, um, what??? They are for our camp this week. Teenagers from junior high school are being taught about STDs and sexual health – something they don’t get taught in school. So tomorrow I head off to camp in the national park.... watch this space...