Songkran Chapter 3: Blood in the Water

I spent the third day of Songkran with my Thai friends Ball and Ying, who just graduated from Chiang Mai University. They explained to me that this used to be a gentler festival and that I should really say thank you when somebody pours water on me because that means they’re saying happy birthday; I found this emotionally difficult to execute when I got fire-hosed in the face by a fat guy dressed like Robocop.

The name of the game is redundancy. This festival is in fact the same thing every day, and the city gets wetter and wetter. But people can’t keep from going about their normal routine, so they just adjust to the fact that life is now wet. We are, for the most part, now in an aqueous world. There are muddy footprints leading into every restaurant and a warm puddle on every seat from where some completely drenched patron, tee-shirt heavy and hanging to his knees, cargo pockets sloshing full of water, once sat. Money is no longer shuffled in wallets but peeled off of soggy rolls.

The magnitude of the festival has increased. The girly bars have set up gigantic speakers and little stages so that their girls and their customers can shake their booties to club Reggae and Gasolina. There is more of a mardi gras feel to the place.

There was also a little parade yesterday, aside from the informal parade of ladyboys in pickup trucks around the moat. Different temples carried their gold Buddha statues around while the folks around splashed water and some kind of scented oil on them. These were followed by a drum and flute group who rocked out as a woman danced and twirled knives around. We were careful not to splash her with scented oil.

Meanwhile, I keep hearing this rumor that 100 people (more by now) have already died this Songkran. People do die, but I doubt that this high fatality rate is entirely true. I have seen some injuries: bruised noses, black eyes, scrapes and limps. But the thing about the festival is that people know that there is some crazy shit going on. How do you go and die when you know that there’s this much crazy shit happening? That’s crazy enough in itself.
And that’s my final thought.