Wet and Wild in the Streets
Songkran starts gently... (Photo by Tevaprapas Makklay)
From April 13 to 15, Phuket – along with the rest of the country – descends into soggy anarchy, known officially as Songkran, or the Thai New Year.
Songkran was originally an Indian festival to celebrate the coming of the rainy season. In Thailand it starts off gently, with people going to the nearest Buddhist temple to pay their respects to the monks and to older people by gently pouring scented water over their hands and, sometimes, gently daubing water mixed with prickly heat powder on other’s cheeks. It’s all very decorous.
That doesn’t last long. Once breakfast is over (or before) families and groups or friends take up station by the side of the road with large barrels of water. Others load barrels into the back of pickup trucks. The craziness starts. As the pickups slow down to take aim, they are blitzed with water from the roadside groups – and vice versa.
Motorbikes are naturally a prime target of both sides, being fired on with basins, water pistols or bicycle pumps full of water. Even fire trucks have been known to get in on the fun.
In Saphan Hin, on the edge of Phuket Town, and in the streets of Patong there’s a total free-for-all. Even police officers are not immune – you’ll see them soaked to the skin, their uniforms daubed with smears of powder.
It’s all done in the best of humour, but it’s not for everyone. So if you don’t think this is the sort of thing for you, stay in your hotel, or insist that the windows of your limo stay tightly shut. Certainly, don’t parade around the streets in your trendily crumpled Armani linen suit, Gucci loafers and Patek Philippe watch. They’ll all get ruined. Guaranteed.
...but rapidly becomes hilarious anarchy. (Photo by Siren)
Generally, in Phuket, it’s not as mad as in Chiang Mai; here the craziness usually lasts just one day – the 13th – though if you get doused on the 14th or 15th, don’t blame us.
A word of warning: a great deal of alcohol is consumed during the three days so unless you have something particularly urgent to do, stay off main roads – the accident rate soars during this time.
And if you do get soaked despite all your precautions, remember that whoever doused you is simply pouring good wishes all over you. Be grateful.
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