We left Cambodia and made it back into Bangkok just in time for Songkran, Thailand’s New Years celebration. Songkran officially takes place every year from April 13 to April 15 (yes we’ve been running a little bit behind on the blog), but festivities sometimes last well into the next week. Throughout the world, Songkran is perhaps most famous for the water throwing activities where people use water-guns, buckets, and whatever else they have to dump water on each other. People also cover one another with the clay like mixture of talc and water. During Songkran, it is almost impossible to walk around outside without getting covered in water.
We began our Songkran festivities by meeting our friend Scot in downtown Bangkok. Scot taught with us at Anukoolnaree and is currently living in Bangkok. We put our phones and other valuable into a waterproof bag and walked out into the madness that was Silom Road during Songkran. Thousands of people were crammed together on a small road covering each other in water and talc. It only took a few minutes for us to be completely soaking wet. While the water was welcome on a maddeningly hot day, the super cold ice water still manged to shock us even when we were already soaked. While we were too wet to take our camera’s out there were some souls braver than us who were able to capture the madness.
After roaming around Silom road for a while we decided to check out the action on Khao San Road, Bangkok’s notorious backpacker haven. Rachel and I had never been to Khao San Road and we figured Songkran would be a good time to check it out. Khao San somehow managed to be even more crowded than Silom and as expected contained quite a few more farangs than on Silom. Khao San was a little bit too crowded and after a little bit we attempted to make our way out of the tightly packed crowds. Unfortunately for us, every turn we made seemed to trap us in an even smaller, more densely packed alley. We eventually made our way out of the madness where we found a bus back to our hotel. The bus was packed with other soaked revelers, and every-time it stopped the open doors and windows were pummeled with water from people waiting at the bus stop. The bus ride was quiet the experience itself, and I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to drive that bus.
Overall, Songkran may have been pretty hectic, but it was a lot of fun. We were both really happy to enjoy such a unique cultural experience and catch up with an old friend.
Turtling in Thailand 