Chiang Mai and The Biggest Water Fight in the World

After missing the Chinese New Year in China, the Vietnamese New Year in Vietnam, and the Balinese day of Silence in Bali, we were determined to be in the right place at the right time for the Thai New Year. The Thai New Year, or Songkran, is an interesting mix of pious Buddhist ceremonies and frantic, yet friendly, water wars in the streets. Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand is home to the largest, longest, and most spirited Songkran celebration in the country. We planned our entire Thailand journey around coming to Chiang Mai to celebrate the New Year. We learned that some residents of the city flee for the week of celebration to avoid the madness. We embraced it.

First the religious side. We made it to Chiang Mai a couple days before the celebration started in earnest, which was good so that we could get situated and appreciate the more calm and traditional aspect of the festival. There are many Buddhist temples throughout the city. Most of them have a sand building ceremony, in which stupas are fashioned out of sand and adorned with colorful prayer flags.

The monks in Thailand are very well educated; many monks enjoy practicing their English and are willing to speak with tourists about Buddhism, basketball, and everything in between.

Jet Rin Temple, seen here, always builds the largest, most decorative sand stupa in the city. Later that day we watched the ceremonial golden umbrella being hoisted to the top. Dancing, chanting, and eating were also large parts of the ceremony. Afterwards we participated in the cleaning of the Buddha ceremony. Jasmine scented water is distributed en masse and sprinkled respectfully over a Buddha image. Each temple has its own Buddha-cleansing ceremony. We suspect this is how the water festival started. More on that later.
Meanwhile, as Songkran was gearing up, so were the Red Shirts, a political party who support ousted prime minister Thaksin Sinawatra. The Red Shirts are not to be confused with the Yellow Shirts, who were responsible for pressuring the military into the bloodless coup pushed Thaksin out of office in 2006. You might recall hearing about the Red Shirt riots in Bangkok this April. This was the Chiang Mai chapter-- a lot more subdued and much fewer in number. About 25-50 people showed up for this demonstration and shut down a major street inside of the moat.

The Media.

They camped out in the main square of the city and watched simulcast from the much larger Bangkok protests, including a video telephone call from Thaksin himself. Though the protests in Bangkok shut down the city and consequently halted Songkran celebration, Chiang Mai was not affected in the least. (Bangkok later extended Songkran so that everyone could enjoy the festivities once the riots were quelled.) We'd love to go into greater detail about the politics of this situation but in the end its just the same old shit: corruption, ignorance, and military-backed "democracy."

Ok! Back to Songkran. Over the next couple of days, the water splashing became more and more intense until we couldn't go 10 feet out of our door without being soaked by eager group of children or adults.

Did we mention that the old city is surrounded by a massive moat? One of the secrets to Chiang Mai's undisputed claim to being the Songkran capital of Thailand is its unlimited supply of easily accessible water. The main water throwing happens around the perimeter of the moat.

Bucket vendors ply their wares in the battle zone. Everyone is a fare target. It doesn't matter what you're wearing or what vehicle you are riding in. You will get drenched.

This little girl had it out for Max.

Moat water. Gross. Kara predicted that there must be a surge of infections during Songkran as the majority of the water thrown comes from here. The water is thrown into the street, washes into the gutters, and back into the moat. Naturally, after 5 days of celebrating, Kara had an ear infection.

Max, with an intention to retrieve our artillery, the small pink bucket, fell into the moat. And then continued to splash from the moat. In the moat, you also get bucketed. Notice the scheming Thai child in the blue shirt behind Max.

Chaos.

Inside the walls of the moat, the atmosphere is much more subdued, though you are by no means safe from water... unless you enter a temple. We walked into one temple which had an impressive display of "tunes," seen hanging above. These tunes are hung from the ceiling and are left to blow in the wind, sometimes encouraged by a fan. The swinging motion is said to help lift the souls of the dead up to heaven.

Inside another temple, Phra Singh, a very life like wax figure of their revered deceased monk sat amongst many offerings. Chiang Mai was the first place we have seen this type of monk worship/honor giving.

The next morning we woke up early to watch the removal, cleansing, and parading of this famous Buddha. First step, remove the Buddha from the temple.

Second step: Elevate the Buddha to sit on top of a mobile boat-swan-dragon altar.

Third step: Parade the Buddha around the city while devotees gently splash water on him, soaking the attendants for hours.


The Buddha is paraded around the city for many hours, and meets up with other fellow Buddhas who have been removed from their temples. They are all paraded down the main street and there is much splashing. It is clear that what began as a Buddha-cleansing ceremony has now grown into a full on water fight between the mortals. In this clip, you can see the seeds for the madness of the secular celebrations that grew out of this religious observance.

We're not sure about this kid on the horse, but we gather he's holy.

After some time our small pink bucket was not enough to satisfy our water throwing desires. We got serious and bought a water gun. Later we would upgrade again to two half gallon water buckets.

Kara is ready for action.

Traffic slowed to a crawl on the third day of the water throwing. The road around the moat is three lanes wide. Pick up trucks are the most popular type of car in Thailand and are well suited for Songkran. Whole families pile into the back along with water troughs of various design from 30 gallon metal drums to restaurant sized ice coolers. Pick ups battle with each other along with the pedestrians lining the moat. The pick ups are like pirate ships, roaming the city, drenching everyone in their path.

Ice blocks. Another advantage to being in a pick up is having a tank of water large enough to accommodate a giant ice block. The ice is sold in massive blocks on the side of the moat. We offered to buy this truck we had been playing with some ice. Then they invited us on to ride with them around the moat for the rest of the day.
But not before they drenched us with heart-stoppingly cold water. ITS SO COLD. Another great thing about the ice buckets are that they serve as coolers for soft drinks and beers.

Here's an elephant.

In the evening there are many things to do and see around town. Water play is prohibited after sundown, making twilight an uneasy time where everyone is exhausted but technically still fair game for some last minute splashing. We found ourselves eyeing everyone suspiciously and taking unknown backroutes to our guesthouse to avoid any water splashing around this time. Above is one of the free open air Thai dance performances we saw at Phra Singh Temple.

Surprisingly the night events that we found engrossing were not as popular with the locals. Max is front row center.

Street markets extend their hours and are much more lively during the festival. On this street there were rabbits, dogs, turtles and other animals for sale.

The Miss Songkran Pageant. There is no talent section or bikini parade. We walked in to the middle of this contest and the results still hadn't been decided an hour later. The minimum stilleto height was 5 inches or something BIZARRE. These women could barely walk out to the stage...perhaps this is why there was no talent section. Audience members handed flowers and balloons to the contestants they favored. Kara wanted to stay until the end but was with Max and an Irish guy who were not as impressed.

These were our favorite performers in Chiang Mai. They are the bluegrass/country duo that performs nightly at a restaurant we frequented called "The Zest." They were really good. They should make their way to Nashville, seriously.

Street side foot massages were a dime a dozen during the festival. Locals, tourists, and local tourists all enjoyed giving their feet a break.

Songkran is taking on characteristics of Halloween. Max tried on what he thought might be a Lenin mask (seen to the far far right.) Also available was Saddam Hussein, Obama, and Osama Bin Laden.

The final day of splashing.

Our hands, pruned, from being wet all day long.

Max's face is seen smeared with a flour water mixture that is somehow related to the festival.

The water fighting was hectic fun and the religious ceremonies were beautiful and informative, however there is a third aspect of Songkran that luckily we avoided. It is, unfortunately, the deadliest seven days of the Thai calendar. Surprisingly this has nothing to do with the reckless water throwing, but rather the drinking and driving that comes with any nation's main vacation and holiday time. This year we learned that over 220 people died and over 2,658 people were injured from drunk driving accidents in just the first four days. Apparently this is a significant improvement from past years, however we hope that the police themselves stop drinking and start enforcing the check points with more rigor. Chiang Mai had a "no drinking, no smoking" Songkran campaign, but it will take more than banners to stop the problem.

Chiang Mai lived up to our expectations and we are glad we were here for Songkran. We also really enjoyed the city in its own right. With its ancient history, easy going atmosphere, and distinct Lanna culture (an ancient Northern Thai kingdom who made Chiang Mai its capital), Chiang Mai is worth a visit regardless of the time of year.

Thailand only gave us a 2 week on arrival visa since we crossed by land from Malaysia. After Songkran our time was up. See you next time at the Burmese/Thai border for our first of four entries into Burma.

K and M

p.s. Today's post falls on Max's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAXIMILIAN MAGGIORE BROWNSTEIN! This entry is posted on his birthday in homage to past childhood birthdays that were filled with much water splashing.