And try not to die...

After several days of intense water fighting the actual Songkran date rolled around it was announced that we would go to Pattaya. Not the one where the average age of a male foreign visitor is 98 and money can buy you love, but Pattaya, Chiang Rai, so only an hour away from me.

As usual with car journeys I took up a commanding position in the back of the pick-up, except this time I had a 200L barrel of water, a load of buckets and lots of girls with me. During Songkran the roads become a hazardous obstacle course and groups of people line the roadside throwing water and cars. This meant I got some great hits on them as blazed past at a thousand miles an hour, but I was also blasted in the face several tims when I wasn't paying attention and didn't duck.

As we neared Chiang Rai city the concentration of Songkrans increased and they started using ice to chill their water to almost 0 degrees Kelvin, which was horrible. I didn't have my camera but it was quite a sight to behold, the streets all soaking wet and thronging with people.

Arriving at Pattaya I saw it was a shallow river with a sandy bank, full of swimmers. It was odd to see everyone swimming fully-clothed, with only a few foreigners around. Swimming fully clothed is dangerous because your clothes become very heavy and weigh you down in the water. Oddly, I kept being told to be careful and that someone had died yesterday. After some investigation of the water, it was clear that the deepest part was 60cm deep and though the current was appreciable, children could quite easily walk against it. I know you only need 5cm of water to drown, but come on. I disregarded the warnings and splashed around until some idiots in longboats, those ones with a big exposed propeller on a long stick, were allowed to drive up and park in the middle of the swimmers. Sometimes my mind boggles at the idiocy I see here.

No sooner had we finished a mediocre and massively overpriced meal when I spotted a commotion on the other side of the river. It appeared an adult man had drowned. Although I was about 100m away and don't have hawk vision, I'm quite sure I didn't see anyone do CPR or give the kiss of life. It looked like the “doctors” just stood around to see if maybe the guy would wake up. Then someone lifted his legs up once and then he was declared dead. As a sheet was laid over the man, the people I was with “I told you so”'d me, but really, how a) drunk b) stupid or c) massively unlucky do you have to be to drown in such a mild environment. I'm personally inclined to lean towards a combo-platter of a) and b).

I've read that every year around 600 people die of Songkran during the “Seven Dangerous Days of Songkran,” mostly from accidents resulting from massive alcohol consumption and the number of motorbikes in the country. Exacerbated by the fact that unless it's the day of the week the police have chosen to enforce helmet use, people rarely wear them. If they do, they don't fasten them. Plus, the widespread drunkenness makes the average person's attempts to speak English even worse. While a typical evening “conversation” with a stranger might go something like “Hello, good morning! I love you!” on this day I was just getting gibberish. My favourite was the urgently bellowed “You! You! I kiss I!”

Still, it was nice to have a great big water-fight and good to see the usually fairly reserved Thai people let loose, screaming and shouting. Even better were the screams of anguish as we splashed groups of cocky roadside youths on the way home – after installing three large blocks of ice in our water barrel.

Interestingly, the Songkran new year festival is also celebrated as the Akha new year, which they celebrate by dying eggs different colours and giving them to each other. As a result I spent about a week eating 7 eggs a day!

I won't be updating this blog any more - go to The Penang Blog to see my new and exciting Malaysia blog!