Sawasdee Bi Mai! or Happy Thai New Year!
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2002
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77
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Trip End
Sep 22, 2003
Chaing Mai,
Thailand
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Smashing up chillies and stuff on the floor was great fun and a great bonding experience but things kept flying out of the mortar and landing on the mat or on my leg. About 10 mins after I had finished I noticed a few red stinging patches on my legs where the chillies had landed and begun to burn - maybe I shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen at all as I can't seem to stay safe! We applied tomato and this seemed to help (of course - why didn't I think of that?) With our new paste we made a lovely pork curry and then we made a Chiang Mai chicken curry with peanuts and ginger. After that it was fried fish with spicy relish and sweet and sour vegetables. We managed to pace ourselves a bit better than the day before and watched the new people with knowing looks on our faces. Sure enough, by the time we had made glass noodle salad and black sticky rice pudding, they had adopted the same "couldn't-eat-more-without-poking-it-down-with-a-stick" look that we had had the day before.
All through the day we heard screaming and laughing and knew that we would not make it back without getting wet. Officialy this is the first day of the water "sprinkling" and so we were given plastic bags to put everything in. As we headed out of the gate of the school we were drenched by the staff so we didn't make it far. By the time we got back we were dripping wet and just dumped our stuff and headed to the shops to buy some guns. The idea of Songkran is that you visit elders and seniors and monks etc and make merit by asking permission to sprinkle a little holy water on their shoulder or hands. These days it is just a mass drenching session with no permission asked and no apologies for damaged cameras / dignity etc. There was supposed to be a ban on pump action water pistols but there were hundreds and they sprayed water further and faster than you would believe. Of course many people just throw buckets of water and none too gently either. People on motorcycles are fair game and it's amazing there are not more accidents as people get squirted in the eyes and ears and pelted with ice cold water and sometimes ice. It's now more aggressive than religious for the most part but still rather enjoyable when it's 39 degrees! People were dragging buckets out of the canal and some people had hoses and there were trucks going past with oil drums full of water and blocks of ice. A fantastic atmosphere and great fun chasing people around who thought they could stay dry. The best part for me was seeing the street children joining in and being a part of the celebrations as much as the people with homes and money around them.
The road by us was designated a food road (we honestly never knew this before we booked the guesthouse!) and so after drying off and waiting for people to give up the water thing, we headed back out to get a little something. There was music and dancing and SOOOO much food. Lots of the wealthy Thai people had been to every stall to sample something and it looked like a strange edition of masterchef with loads of half eaten food around. We got chatting to one old lady who gave us a try of something that looked a bit odd. We didn't want to be rude but it wasn't very nice and we were relieved to find it was only fish. There was a fair amount of deep fried insects for you to have with your spring roll if you wanted.
13th April - Because of the holiday our plans to do other things were suspended which we hadn't realised would happen. We were therefore forced to get wet again in the absence of anything better to do. We wandered around a few of Chiang Mai's many temples and managed to stay fairly dry as we passed only Thai children who were reluctant to wet the farang (westerners) without them first being sprayed. The 13th is officially the first day of the three that make up Lanna or northern Thai new year and is the day for cleaning out the old. At Wat Phra Sing, the most important temple in central Chiang Mai, many people were tipping holy water on a Buddha who had been moved into a more accessible place. There was also a monk dripping water on people praying before him and then he would hand them bits of string to put around their wrist, probably along with a few words of wisdom too. Unfortunately there was a photo journalist there taking pictures of people worshipping which is a bit of a no-no. What made it worse was that she was only wearing shorts and a swimsuit which is offensive to the Thai people at the best of times and certainly not the done thing in a temple, even more so on such an auspicious occassion when Thai people buy new smart clothing. We bumped into her again later in the square when we watched the local Miss Songkran festival. She had climbed up the brick ramparts where she shouldn't have been and the Thai officials were yelling at her to come down. Because she was white they started yelling at us to make her come down but she wasn't listening to anyone. Eventually she came down but we saw her get back up about an hour later. This time we cheered when an official physically escorted her down. We made a big show of splashing her and all her equipment the next day and she really wasn't impressed by this - about as impressed as the Thai's were of her behaviour!
After the Miss Songkran contest we lined the streets to watch the procession. The guns had been replaced by silver fruit bowls of holy water and little silver cups for splashing over the Buddha images that were paraded through town so that people could make merit by cleaning him. After 5 or 6 it seemed to stop so I asked a local lady if it had finished. "Oh no" she said "there are 54!" After a few more we decided to call it a day!
14th April - Another day of getting wet and getting other people wet. This is officiallt transition day where the old goes out but the new hasn't come in yet. Another day of cleaning, dancing and making merit for the Thai people. Lots of artisans were displaying their wares as well and we noticed a stall of knives and guns. Pip remarked how innapropriate this would be at the New Year celebrations at Trafalger Square!
15th April - Same-same as the Thai's say. Buckets of water and flooded streets and an average temperature of 37 degrees. Today's day is the welcoming in of the New Year and a parade of people go to the governors house. Again lots of music, dancing and fabulous tribal costumes of embroidered pantaloons and little jackets, silver headdresses and brightly coloured pom-poms. There seemed to be a lot of alcohol consumed as well which surprised us. Thai people never shout or get angry with each other as to raise one's voice is to lose face which is very important in Thai society. However over the previous two days we have seen two almost-fisticuffs through drink. Songkran also sees an amazing death and injury toll as people have accidents through drink driving, no helmets and lack of experience (there are 12 million motorbikes in Thailand but only 6 million licences) as well as drowning and other water realted incidents. Strangely we also found out that there is a water shortage in Chiang Mai!
