Songkran in Chiang Mai: Celebrating Thai New Year Like a Local

I have tried to describe the Thai New Year Festival of Songkran to so many people over the years. I have Skyped people from a safe distance for them to see the madness as close as possible, I have about a million photographs from this year's festival alone but nothing can quite capture the feeling of a city that is completely transformed for 4 (maybe 5) days of the year. 

 

The word Songkran is from the ancient Sanskrit language meaning to pass or move into. Dating back to the Sukothai period of 1238-1438AD the Songkran festival has been enacted in many ways over the years resulting in the blown out madness that we see in the festival today. It is not uncommon for things to get taken to extremes in Thailand, so when the bathing of the Buddha image became a city wide waterfight as early as the 1960's everyone just went with it. Today the Songkran festival in Chiang Mai is celebrated with street parties, water fights, music and the phrase "sawadee pii mai" meaning Happy New Year! 

This year we found ourselves as members of a family celebration that happened in the driveway of a local home. Beginning at the cafe next door with some local kids, the invitation to join the family party never came in so many words. It came through placing beer orders with one of the younger family members who disappeared on his motorbike to replenish the supply. There are two things that the Thai people do well, food and fun and this day was a combination of both. We spent just as much time 'playing water' with the little kids in the street as we did sitting with the adult members of the family snacking on grilled pork and talking about our travels and experiences.

For a brief moment in time we had the opportunity to see this fantastic festival through the eyes of the local people. Away from the tourists in the main street, we spent our day in a side street buying huge blocks of ice to freeze our water supply and splashing anyone and everyone who happened to pass. When the street grew quiet we began our own waterfight and drenched each other with buckets, water pistols and anything else that came to hand at the time. No one stays dry during the Songkran festival and considering that April is one of the hottest months in the year in Thailand, the opportunity to stay soaked throughout the near 40 degree heat of the day is welcomed. 

Chiang Mai is flooded with 'farang' or foreigners during this annual celebration and there is nothing to stop you from joining the partying crowds in the main gate area, where everyone is welcome to join in the fun regardless of age or race. But there is something to be said for joining a group of locals who are somewhat more tame and enjoy their new year by coming together to eat, drink and be merry. The party atmosphere may not be as extreme as the network of backpackers and travellers who converge on the city but the experience is just as rich!  

To join The Austin Experience for the Songkran Festival in Thailand in 2015 go to http://www.theaustinexperience.com.au/fixed-date-tours/thailand-water-festival/

Sunday in Chiang Mai: A day at Huay Tung Thao Lake

Chiang Mai, as a tourist destination, has a rich array of cultural sights, temples, tigers and elephants. Being the original capital of Thailand, there is a great deal of history for tourists to gain an insight into the rule of Siam and a world that existed over 500 years ago. But what do you do here after you have seen the sights and scoured the histories? What does Chiang Mai hold for the long stay traveller?

The perfect Sunday...

We are lucky enough to have a group of friends here in Chiang Mai who live here, a combination of Thai and many other nationalities who reside in this beautiful city full-time. It is this network of friends that has provided us with some of the richest travel experiences that we could ever hope to find on our travels. It is these people who have helped us to see the real Chiang Mai, beyond what the tourists see. This week we revisited a place that we have ventured to before, Huay Tung Thao Lake...

Huay Tung Thao is located some 15km north of the main city of Chiang Mai and it is where the mountains meet the water. A popular hang out for the local people, it is an enormous body of water fed by the mountains of Doi Suthep which is one of the most picturesque locations that Chiang Mai has to offer. On an average Sunday you will arrive at the lake to join hundreds of Thai people scattered around the banks, sitting in simple bamboo huts whilst enjoying a sip of local whiskey and some traditional Thai foods for an extremely affordable price. The waters are full of kids splashing around and enjoying the day as the parents and families look on from their comfortable beach side location. 

Sipping local whiskey with a view!

This kind of Sunday afternoon is reminiscent of my childhood days in Australia, our parents sitting on a riverbank while we paddled in the Murray River; but in Thailand the picture presents a little differently. Instead of a home abound with Gum Trees, I am faced with Thailand's second highest mountain and a light mist, making the whole scene slightly magical. As we sit with Cartoon, thankful that he is Thai because we cannot read the menu, we talk about our lives and the differences between growing up in our respective countries. Funnily enough there are more similarities than differences in our conversations about life and the realisation that growing up is a universal thing. Marriage, kids and how to make enough money to survive and be happy - it doesn't matter where you are from, these kinds of things are fundamental all over the world. 

I am wearing swimming gear under a sun dress - as the first and easiest thing I came across in my wardrobe that morning, without thinking (or remembering) that I am in Thailand... I sincerely dislike the Western people who visit a country and don't follow the local dress codes for decency... So when I decide that it is time to join the local kids for a swim, I realise that going into the water in my dress is my only option. If I had thought it out, I would have realised that shorts and a singlet would have been a much more practical option because Thai people don't swim in only bathers, there is a level of decency which is adhered to here and that generally means not stripping down to your underwear to go in the water!

 

So I bite the bullet and take my sundress for a dip, the water is warm from the constant sun and as I turn in the water, the sensational view of the mountains takes my breath away... again. I look back to the shoreline at the mass of people simply enjoying their Sunday afternoon and I spot a group of Western people, bikini clad, who have found this secret paradise. That image in a place like this just looks plain wrong, it doesn't fit.

I venture back to my group, cool for the first time since Songkran and I appreciate where I am in the world at exactly this point in time. A simple Sunday, with friends in a spectacular location and I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is these moments in life that make you stop and really appreciate what you have and the months of extremely hard work and saving that it took to get to this point and it is all worthwhile, just to be here.

Sunset over Doi Suthep