Thai New Year, known as
Songkran, is celebrated from
April 13th to 15th. Sometimes the celebrations start earlier. At first, we were a bit worried about getting sprayed everywhere in
Bangkok, but people
usually do so only in
designated areas and not on public transport or in malls. You need to empty your water gun before boarding the metro and some malls won't even let you in with your water gun. Just to be safe though, pull rain cover over your luggage if you're travelling. Don't forget to put your valuables in a
waterproof pouch sold everywhere.
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Water guns are sold everywhere, from cheap and small ones to bigger, more powerful models.
⇦ The water gun with a Winnie the Pooh backpack as the water supply cost 250 baht. You pump every time you shoot water stream is fairly strong and the water lasts a long time so you don't need to refill frequently.
⇦ The biggest water gun we could find was the Doraemon one which cost 300 baht. You need to pump it a few times before you can use the trigger to spray. Pretty powerful.
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We went to
Khao San Road to join the crowds for a water fight party in the early afternoon on the 13
th — highly recommended if you don't mind getting wet! Many foreigners and Thais were at
Khao San Road and a few nearby streets, soaking others with buckets of water and smearing one another with
wet powder. On the way back, we took the
Chao Phraya Express Boat at Stop
N 13 after walking a few minutes.
On the way to Khao San Road
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Water guns for sale near Khao San Road
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⇦ Many locals wearing brightly colored shirts
Refill your water gun for 3-5 baht
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On the 14
th, we joined the celebrations on
Silom Road in the late afternoon. To get there, get off at
MRT's
Silom Station or
BTS's
Sala Daeng Station. It was
extremely crowded. We could barely move at times and for a short person like me, it was hard to breathe sometimes. Everyone very slowly shuffled forward with the occasional spray of water — more like a parade with much
less active mutual water fighting. Because it was so slow-moving, it was easier for people with wet powder to take their time to smear you in the face, sometimes in your eyes and mouth. We thought the
Khao San Road celebration was much more fun! One interesting thing was all the
signs left over from the protests.
If you choose to travel close to Songkran, the
bus station in
Bangkok might be packed with people going home for the holidays. The photos were taken on April 11
th, 2014, a Friday before Songkran. Travelling during this time may not be the best idea, unless you like crazy crowds.
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⇙ A L S O C H E C K O U T ⇘
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