Songkran (สงกรานต์) is the traditional Thai new year celebration, which happens on April 13th-15th. It’s a Buddhist holiday that I can’t do justice explaining, but one part of it involves bathing the Buddha. This bathing extends on to the rest of us, which today involves lots of water guns and kiddie pools for filling up and flinging bucketfuls of water at passing pedestrians, motorbikes, and taxis.

I first heard about this holiday from a Thai coworker back in Utah, but I didn’t realize it was a New Year celebration, or remember what it’s name was. But when I started watching Thai TV shows I ran into episodes portraying the holiday and learned more about it. So when Stori asked me to join her in Thailand this week I looked on a calendar and noticed that this weekend was Songkran, which totally sunk all chances I had at resisting. Stori hadn’t known about the holiday, so she was glad when I warned her about how wet we’d get walking around. We each ordered some waterproof passport holders and made sure to wear flip flops.

I woke up at 2:30 am and spent an hour on my phone researching the festival schedule and trying to get a clear and consistent answer about what the dress code was in these temples we were wanting to see. Eventually I decided on an answer: everyone must have covered shoulders and stomachs, men can wear shorts as long as they extend to/past the knee, women should wear full-length pants or dresses. But the most comforting part was knowing that this dress code only really applied to certain parts of the grounds (except for the royal palace or some of the bigger temples), meaning we could still walk around fine, we just couldn’t enter the special parts. But all this was still a theory so I packed my long pants in my backpack, just in case.

After breakfast at the hotel we tried to find our way into the old city on foot. Stori wants to do as much walking as possible to help save money and keep off the calories we’re getting from the food. Our hotel is positioned very convenient to the airport and next door to a pretty impressive shopping mall, but it’s a few kilometers away from the old city and there’s a formidable intersection we need to cross to get on to normal streets.

The first thing we learned is there are no pedestrian crossing lights here. There are crosswalks painted on the street, and stop lights for the cars, but no happy signs telling the pedestrians that it’s safe for them to walk. By the end of the day we were sort-of comfortable deciding when to walk, but that intersection was pretty terrifying when it was the very first thing we encountered.

We started walking a bit after 9 am, and didn’t see many pedestrians at all until we got to the old city. Stori was very confused about this, since she’s never seen an Asian city with so few people walking on foot. I can’t say how much the holiday is influencing this, or if it’s just this area. I don’t have any tv references on hand about pedestrian traffic outside of Bangkok.

Once we reached the Chiang Mai Gate we saw a big market, and one of the first things I saw was a place selling the floral print shirts people were wearing. I had planned on getting one of these so I picked out one I liked and put it on. Looking at myself in the mirror or pictures while wearing it, I have finally completed the transformation into my father…

I boldly started walking through the market, knowing only that we had to go north. At one point we ended up in what looked like a butcher stand, and Stori insisted that this couldn’t possibly be correct. But I saw a door back out to normal stalls and proclaimed that I was right. We picked a direction with more people and soon ended up at a street. Considering how close the street was to where we emerged from the market, we probably could’ve just found the street and avoided all the crazy smells, but that’s a lesson for next time. I pulled out my phone and we picked a direction to walk where we’d start seeing temples.

The first one we hit was Wat Ched Lin (วัดเจ็ดลิน). At this point I still was uncertain about the dress code, so I didn’t even know if I could walk through the gate. There weren’t enough people around to give me confidence. But Stori prodded me and we entered. We walked around, took a few pictures, and said very little.

We continued north along that same road, aiming for a pretty big temple on the map, Wat Chedi Luang (วัดเจดีย์หลวง), but when we arrived we saw there was an entrance fee for foreigners so we kept walking.

It was during this next stretch that we got our first dose of water. A group was walking toward us and got sprayed by a bucket which also hit our feet. It was cold, which was nice and a little surprising. For some reason I assumed the water wouldn’t be cold. The guy that had thrown the bucket retreated into a door, but I totally expected it when, as I passed, he stepped out with a bottle of water, smiled, and poured a bunch of it on my shoulder before proceeding to get Stori as well.

Our next stop was the Three Kings Monument, which had a shaded pavilion set up for scheduled events later in the evening (we’ll see those on Monday). We sat in some chairs and I took out a drink from my backpack. Stori noticed a vendor selling ice cream and went over to get some. There was a truck and workers watering the plants and once or twice he took the hose and sprayed passing people.

I kept hearing some music that sounded like a party, and it looked like it was coming from a school next door. I wondered if something was happening, and if we were allowed to join. But when we got closer we couldn’t see anyone, so I figured it was a band practicing. We picked our next destination and headed over.

Our next (and last) temple of the day was Wat Phra Singh (วัดพระสิงห์). It was a big one and had a lot of people, but no foreigner admission fee for the grounds. In the center of the entrance roundabout there was a Buddha statue people were washing, and since enough people were around wearing shorts that appeared as long as mine, I decided it was okay for me to step up as well. I took my flip flops off and walked up to watch from closer. Since I didn’t have anything to do but watch, it didn’t take long for me to be satisfied and I went back down. We walked around some more and eventually found a little market on the other side with food and crafts. At this point I was brave enough to try entering the temple itself, so I headed up the steps and into the door.

Washing the monk statues as well.

Inside they had a donation box for foreigners to buy admission (20 baht). Along the edges of the room were a few monks. At the front were a bunch of Buddha statues of various sizes. And in the center hanging from the ceiling were a bunch of pendants. I picked a spot and kneeled down for a bit. Most of the people were getting little yellow flowers and papers. There were tables where they were sitting and talking. I left and found Stori again at one of the market stalls that had some really cool art we might want to go back for and buy.

Stori had planned for us to head back to the hotel in the early afternoon when it’s hottest, but first we tried to find the LDS chapel which was very close. We found the sign and a driveway, but maybe not the building itself. Once we got back to the road we saw a little sit-down place, Bistro Terrace, and decided to eat lunch there.

This was my first real chance to order food in Thai. I picked out what I wanted (Vegetarian Pad Thai, Sticky Rice with Mango, and a Thai Iced Tea). I knew all the Thai words for these, so when the boy walked up to take our order I did my best. “Pad Thai” is easy in Thai, it’s mostly just what you’d expect. The “Vegetarian” part was the fun one. He asked (in English) if I wanted shrimp, chicken, etc. I said “Jae (เจ)” and he understood! Mango with sticky rice was pretty obvious since I was pointing at it. But for the drink I didn’t point and just said “Cha Nom Yen (ชานมเย็น)” which is one of the few foods I’m confident I say correctly. He didn’t ask any questions about the drink and Stori took her turn to order. Stori wondered if maybe they’d bring me a totally different drink than what I meant, but I felt fine since I heard the staff say it in the back. When the food did arrive, it was exactly what I wanted. The iced tea was a brighter color than expected, but it tasted correct.

As we ate, at one point we heard people laughing and coming past with water guns. Some of the restaurant employees took their station at the kiddie pool and splashed a lot of people passing by. It was really funny. We really liked that place and might go back again.

The walk back to the hotel was much more fun and easy than the one earlier in the morning. For one thing, we were now much more confident navigating the streets. For another, there were more people out and about, and a lot of water splashing stations along the way to keep us entertained and cool.

Drying the wet clothes

We got cleaned up and relaxed for a few hours. The WiFi at the hotel wasn’t reliable and Stori really needed to have data, so we went over to the mall next door to get a local prepaid SIM card. Since it was supposed to be a short trip I left my phone charging in the room. But once we started taking a proper look at the mall during normal business hours we saw just how much there was. The floor with the AIS SIM card place had tons of other phone and tech stores as well. The floor above it was mostly restaurants, but also had a movie theater. We looked around for a while and I borrowed her phone to check the festival schedule. Since there wasn’t much happening that day that wasn’t also happening the next, I said we could take the evening off and stay in the area. We decided on the rest of the week’s schedule and ate at The Pizza Company.

Stori captured my emotional breakdown at not having my phone for a whole evening.

All told we walked 22,000 steps and 10 miles.