The Songkran Festival is also called the Thai New Year.  Occurring in April, it originally was to honor one's elders by pouring a small amount of perfumed water onto their hand or shoulder.  You can see what it has become in Chiang Mai.  Five days of water fights and ice water.............

 

True Songkran The young visit the elders	A Happy Greeting	A Budhist Prayer
A Water Blessing	A Fond Farewell	Blessing the Spirit House Most houses and businesses have a spirit house. The good spirits keep the evil ones away from your residence.
Neighbor Kids An ambush may come from anywhere.	Chiang Mai Gate The old city is surrounded by a moat and ancient walls	High Dives Although historic ruins dating back to 1200 A.D. nobody protects them. They exist throughout the city.
Water Dispenser Set up by the City. Supposedly to supply water for a few coins. With the moat more convenient they received little use		Ice Vendor Big business selling ice to put in your water container before throwing. It was 100 degree day and it DID NOT feel good.
Jason's Internet Shop	Jason is a friend from New York	A TRUE FAMILY AFFAIR...
Thailand is refered to as the "Land of Smiles".	......You can see why.
		Trust No One!
The Good... This area known as Thae Phae Gate is comparable to Hart Plaza for special events (but cleaner).	The Bad......	The Ugly. Water taken straight from the moat. Who knows what it contains!
The Crazed...	Beware, Yellow Water	Waiting for Monks In Thai tradition many waited to give and receive a blessing from the monks who would arrive at Thae Phae Gate.
Thae Phae Road	Budha Blessings Budhas in parades or in temples are annointed in reverence.	A Better use for the ice.....yum!
Loh Kroi Road ....is the bar area. About 8 bars where almost anything goes and it did get a little crazy.	Bar Girls....
Gary owns the Restaurant. It just happens to overlook the bars....Honest!	Highway Traffic Why is the road death toll so high.....?

Songkran is fun for the first time you see it.  But now people just keep going more and more crazy with this festival.. This year (2007) it began early, although unofficially, and lasted for 10 days.  That's 10 days you cannot go out of the house without having water thrown on you.  Even that could be tolerable but the "fun" thing to do is fill your water container with blocks of ice so that it is as cold as you can get it. I have had water poured down my back by "friends" as I sat eating in a restaurant.  That gets a little much after a while.  Even on the open roads, people drive with drums of water in the back of their pickup trucks and douse unsuspecting pedestrians and motorcyclist as they pass. Many grumpy old men like me try to find a way to "get out of town" during this period.  Some of my friends planned trips back to their home country, I went to Singapore.

SONGKRAN CELEBRATIONS Rules ignored as revellers party hard Chiang Mai, Khao San lead the way; Khon Kaen tops list of road fatalities Songkran fun continued into its fourth day across the country, especially at locations where water frolics went on alongside dancing and - however unlawfully - drinking. Free concerts in Chiang Mai have been held for three consecutive days without official permission. Authorities were helpless to stop the sale of alcohol at privately owned areas where large groups of teenagers gathered. Ten of thousands crowded the Huay Kaew Road - which was closed to allow the concerts. Heavy traffic congestion resulted. Several scuffles broke out but there were no reports of serious injury. Apart from hundreds of police officers and city officials, about 1,000 soldiers from local Army units mobilised along the road to provide safety and crowd control and direct traffic. As ever, Bangkok's Khao San Road was packed end to end with revellers armed with water guns and other implements. Police prohibited the throwing of powder and other material. That means a lighter workload for the 200 city workers who must start cleaning the road and its nearby streets today, the official end of the festival. Police reported no complaints of women being molested during the wholesale fun. They said most followed advice not to dress in revealing attire. Many new sites for Songkran fun emerged this year with names mimicking legendary Khao San [rice seed] Road. Two are Khao Neo [sticky rice] Road in Khon Kaen and Khao Pun [round rice noodles] Road in Nakhon Phanom. On a sadder note, Songkran has seen 238 people killed and another 3,180 injured in 2,823 road accidents between this past Wednesday and Saturday. The road toll remains slightly lower than that of 2006. Sixty-seven people died and another 886 were injured in 789 accidents yesterday alone. A Westerner drowned in the historic Chiang Mai moat after a heavy bout of drinking. Many locals had been swimming in the moat. Drinking drivers were the main cause of road accidents. About 43 per cent of accidents are caused by alcohol, police reported. Speeding accounted for 17.5 per cent and reckless driving 10 per cent. Motorcycles are involved in more than eight of every 10 accidents. Pickups are involved in 10 per cent of all accidents. Khon Kaen has recorded the most fatalities at 14 with Phitsanulok and Chiang Mai at 11 and 10 respectively, according to the Public Health Ministry. Traffic on major Bangkok-bound routes is starting to become congested as commuters head back to the capital. The traditional festival period ended yesterday, although the extended holiday ends on Tuesday.   Six days: 318 dead, and 4,300 injured Some 318 people had been killed and 4,293 others injured in car accidents over six days of the Songkran holiday, the Road Safety Centre announced yesterday. The number of holiday travellers killed so far this Songkran was 29 lower than the same period last year, while 57 more people had been injured. The number of accidents (3,823) up to Monday night was 40 more than last year, the Interior Minister and the centre's deputy director Aree Wongsearaya said. On Monday alone, there were 417 accidents. Most of them (86 per cent) involved motorcycles. Some 45 were killed and 461 others hurt. Nakhon Phanom, Lampang, Sing Buri, Sa Kaew, and Bangkok topped the list with three deaths each, while Chiang Rai had the most injuries at 19, followed by Udon Thani (17), Kanchanaburi and Si Sa Ket, which had 14 each. Chiang Rai also experienced the most accidents with 19, followed by Udon Thani (15) and Suphan Buri, with 14. In the six days (April 11-16), 2.4 million vehicles were stopped at checkpoints nation-wide and 41,696 motorists found to have breached traffic laws. Most failed to present driver's licences, wear helmets or seatbelts. With many holidaymakers returning to Bangkok from the provinces on Songkran's last day yesterday, Aree contacted public transport agencies to ensure there were sufficient seats for all. Meanwhile, traffic on Mitraparb Highway from Nakhon Ratchasima to Sara Buri had eased and should be back to normal today. Nakhon Ratchasima bus terminals were packed with passengers but officials were confident all would be on their way to the capital by 8pm last night. In Bangkok, travellers arriving at the Mor Chit bus terminal and Hua Lampong Railway Station, caused heavy traffic around the transport hubs.

 

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