Songkran

Wednesday was Songkran, the Thai New Year. We woke up and packed our bags for our move to the next beach down. At breakfast, we were greeted with leis of orchids and face make up made of a mix of water and powder. We then made our way to Thong Naai Paan. The journey was just as enjoyable, and the new beach as beautiful as the last, just a little bigger. Thong Naai Paan is separated into Thong Naai Paan Noi and Thong Naai Paan Yai by a rocky outcropping. We were unable to find a room on Thong Naai Pann Noi and not wanting to bring our bags into Thong Sala for the Water Festival we went in search of a taxi to Thong Naai Paan Yai.

We found ourselves in a restaurant, full of really wet Thai’s. The younger girls were dressed in Traditional Thai dresses with full face make up and were walking around touting water bazookas half their size. The waitresses and other staff were chasing each other around with glasses and bowls of water, while the other guests (properly dressed for the occasion) joined in with glasses of water and water guns of their own. Fully dressed and saddled with our packs, Lucy, Eleanor and I, found a table in the corner where we could watch from afar.

When I walked up to the counter to inquire about a taxi, I looked down and saw an announcement typed and taped to the counter.

It read: Attention Guests: Thailand is currently in the middle of a severe water shortage! It is very important that you help us to conserve water and use as little as possible! Thank you for your cooperation.

As I turned around to watch the spectacle behind me, a bowl of water was dumped on my head, I couldn’t help but wish I had a waterproof camera to take in the irony.

Because it was Songkran, the taxi we took to the next beach was quite like any other I’d ever take, or thought I would ever take again (ah, but how I was mistaken). It was a pick-up, like all the others, but in the back sat four children, a grown woman and a barrel filled with water and bowls. Lucy, Eleanor, with our bags, climbed into the front, and I hoisted myself into the back having no idea what I was getting myself into.

We drove along normally enough for the first 100 yards, but we soon encountered another truck like our own and I found just what the bucket of water was for. As we passed the truck, water came pouring down on us from buckets and guns and bottles. My fellow Thai passengers responded in kind, dousing the other truck with water. After that, not a soul who we passed on the road was safe from the deluge.

We arrived at the next beach and quickly booked into a room (with just one double bed – we’d stopped being picky), put on our bathing suits, put our money and cameras into plastic bags and caught the next truck (full of water and Thai’s) into Thong Sala.

Everyone I have spoken to who was there for Songkran in Kho Phangan, has expressed the sentiment that I express now: I don’t think that I have ever had as much fun in my entire life, than I had that day. It was an experience to experience and cherish (and if lucky, return to again another year).

As soon as our truck hit the road it was an all out water war. Outside the shops and restaurants, crowds of Thais stood with industrial size buckets and water hoses. We were drenched in a matter of minutes. A new crowd every 40 feet, posed a new threat and offered new targets. Trucks, pedestrians, motorcycle drivers – no one was safe or to be trusted.

When the truck stopped, we got out and paid the driver, noticing only once he had driven away, that we had only gone as far as Ban Thai and would now need yet another ride into Thong Sala. I stopped the first truck of revelers I saw and asked if we could join them to Thong Sala. The driver agreed and we joined a foursome of little Thai kids accosting the passers-by.

We knew that the ride into town was only the beginning, but we had no idea just what we were in for. Upon rounding the bend to the main street in Thong Sala, we were greeted by hoards of people with hoses and buckets and water guns. Trucks lined the streets filled with revelers. We found ourselves out of the truck, on our own, defenseless - the first order of business to arm ourselves. We went in search of buckets, but found you could only buy buckets if you purchased their contents as well – a bottle of rum, a bottle of red bull, and a can of coke, all of which, mixed together with ice had to be consumed in order to use the bucket. So of course we go right to the business of emptying our bucket!

As we watched and drank, we were accosted by Thais with baby powdered covered hands, giving you a friendly happy new year as the smeared your face with white paste. We soon had our bucket emptied and headed off in search of more weapons. I had my heart set on water bazooka because you could fill it and head off, not forced, after each dousing, to find a water barrel to refill. I found one for 300 bhat and it was the best 9 dollars I’ve ever spent. Now armed with a weapon, I could take on the armies of Thai children with similar artillery.

We ran into our neighbors from Bottle Beach and canvassed the street, never drying in the scorching heat before the next bucket was dumped on your head. It was an experience I hope never to forget, but one that I cannot go on describing because I have written too much already. Needless to say, it was amazing, unlike anything I’ve experience before – a whole town full of strangers coming together and forming relationships for split seconds of comradery, only to part just as quickly and join up with the next.

We spent hours and hours in Thong Sala, finishing up only as the sun went down, three of about 50 people left on the street.

The next few days of sand and beaches were a blur of beaches and naps and noodles as we came down from our Songkran high. We did not look forward to the 22 hour journey back, but we will never be sorry that we made it.