I spent the week with Denali, a friend and fellow PiAer working in Chiang Mai.
This post of Songkran pictures, which is really the only way to describe the event, is also an opportunity to introduce the city I will be living in starting July 2010. I am home in the US and relaxing in the splendidly cool air for now, but preparing to return soon and begin work for a non-profit in Chiang Mai. I'll be helping with some of their public health projects for children in the northern border regions with Burma.
It will be a big change to go from the beaches of the south to the mountains of the north, but I'm looking forward to all the coming year will bring.
So, a Songkran post is a bit out of chronological order... after diving, Wilson, Emily, and I traveled through Cambodia. Then Emily went to Laos, while Wilson and I went to Vietnam. Those posts will go up soon.
Now to expose the glorious mayhem that is Songkran!
This was about 10am on Day 1, Tuesday, 13 April. The city was just getting warmed up as Denali and I began our day, but the water-throwing actually began the previous afternoon as people left work early and took to the streets.
Ice, to put in your giant buckets of water so that your unsuspecting victim gets a chilly shock, was being sold around the moat.
In front of Wee's restaurant with some of Denali's friends. Getting prepared...
Then launching our attack on anything that passed by.
A few pictures to give an idea of how many people were out in the city. Chiang Mai is centered around the ancient walled city that it once was. The old city is a square, 2km on each side, and surrounded by a moat. It is the moat that supplies most of the water for Songkran, though it is probably the dirtiest water I have ever encountered.
Denali and I met up with Lauren and Dyan, two other PiAers. Lauren works in Chiang Mai and Dylan in East Timor. Together we were an unbeatable team.
Songkran street food... we had to be vigilant to get non-moat-soaked food.
Dylan and Lauren with their artillery...
Songkran, being the beginning of a new year, is also a time to give offerings at the temples for good luck and fortune in the coming year.
Denali and I with ours...
Songkran, being the beginning of a new year, is also a time to give offerings at the temples for good luck and fortune in the coming year.
Denali and I made sure to make our donation, lite our candles and incense, and splash the Buddha with our cups of fragrant petal water.
We slowed down a little bit more each day, preserving our energy for this marathon Thai holiday. Drinking and driving was and is a big problem during Songkran. There was a huge public health campaign going on in Chiang Mai to encourage people to have a sober Songkran. We did not encounter any accidents while walking around the city, so hopefully it brought down the injury and fatality rates from previous years. And everyone still seemed to be having a grand time.
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