I should mention that just a short time before Songkran, we had to say good-bye to Connor, a wonderful friend and member of the District 6330 family. He was sent home early, although the decision to send him home is seen as highly unnecessary by everyone else.
The week of April 15-19 was the Thai festival Songkran. Loy Krathong is important for the meaning and tradition, whereas Songkran is an all-out fun, crazy way to celebrate the Thai new year. These two festivals are the primary Thai festivals. Chiang Mai is known across the country as the most enjoyable place to play Songkran, so people come from all parts of Thailand to play. The streets are full of enthusiastic participants; from a common child with her 20-baht water bucket to a celebrity with their fancy dancy Super Soaker. Melissa is an exchange student in Udon Thani and came to visit me for the week because Lamphun is so close.
The day before the "official" first day of Songkran, my friend Arm and I rode through the city on our way to explore an abandoned quarry. We didn't expect to get wet because Songkran hadn't started yet, but even the road from Lamphun to Chiang Mai was covered in children with water guns and buckets of ice water. We were soaked by the time we even reached the outskirts of Chiang Mai. Aside from being worried about cameras and phones and such, it was wonderful to watch the excitement from the people on the side of the roads as the water flew from their buckets. I really wish I'd been able to get more pictures of this.
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| Everyone gets soaked |
Over the next few days, Melissa, Arm, and I bought water guns and enjoyed the water fights in Tapegate and other various places in Chiang Mai. We spent our days running through water, tossing water at other people, and being soaking wet, while we spent our nights pretty much anywhere. It is an absolutely amazing holiday; water fights have never been so much fun!
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| Tapegate gets pretty crowded |
For the "official" day of Songkran, my host sisters and I dressed in traditional Thai uniform and rode in the Lamphun Songkran parade for a few hours. The entire city dumped bucket after bucket of ice-cold water on us. It was quite hot out but, after four hours of this, it felt the exact same as if it were in the dead of a Canadian winter. Melissa and I headed off to Chiang Mai directly after this, but just as easily could have slept the rest of the day through.
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| Dressed up for the parade with host sisters Bambam and Baibua, and my host cousin who came to visit. |
That day/night was quite an adventure... we got soaked, soaked people, and went on some adventures [meaning crazy, holyshitdidthatjusthappentoobadIcan'tpostit adventures] in the night. At about 3 in the morning or so, we went to the top floor of a tall, fancy Chiang Mai hotel to wait for the sunrise. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the building and all the pollution made it impossible to see the sunrise anyway, but it was still nice being up there and watching the city slowly come into vision. After it was bright out, we motorcycled our way to a giant abandoned quarry filled with water, swam for a bit, then headed to Airport Plaza for the air conditioning. After a while, we decided it was a good idea to call my hosts to tell them where we'd been the past two days, and went home.
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| And it never ends! :D |
The next day, Melissa and I headed to Chiang Mai again to visit Tiger Kingdom before catching her bus back to Udon. We didn't make it in time though and ended up having to just go to the bus station :( Aside from that disappointment, it was a pretty great week filled with crazy out-of-control adventures that I never would have even considered happening 10 (or even 5) months ago. Exchange student life is insane.
จะคิดถึงสงกรานต์มากๆๆๆ
Songkran was over a month ago. Good lord I'm behind.
สวัสดีคาาาา :)
Anneke
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