Day 101! It’s a day early, but we heard rumors the Songkran festivities started today! We went out to investigate and prepare… and after being sucked into the largest water fight I’ve ever been a part of, it turned out they in fact started today.

I woke up this morning and met up with my friends Sam and Dan. We were all very hungry and I found a good looking place to eat breakfast at on Google.

Unlike my past history with finding restaurants on Google, this one WAS open!

This restaurant was run by a very nice Thai woman. A lot of restaurants are, but it always makes the experience of finding a new restaurant even better when the owner makes you feel very welcomed.

We all got vermicelli noodle soup… with congealed blood?! Definitely my first time having that for breakfast. But the meal overall was very delicious. While we were eating, a monk came in. He pretended like he was going to throw water on us, laughed, then said “happy Thai New Year!”

We laughed with him and said it back. Then a conversation started and we told him that we had just finished up at Pa Pae! He was happy to hear that and told us that meditation isn’t just breathing, but in everything we do like walking and eating. Always nice getting some advice from a friendly monk!

As we were paying, the monk came over to us and gave US a tasty treat. I wasn’t 100% sure what it was. But we think it was an unripe mango. It was actually super tasty and had the consistency of an apple with the flavor of a mango!

After breakfast, it was time to go on the hunt for water guns!

Songkran is Thailands New Year. It’s a time for “moving forward” and is celebrated by a giant water fight in most major cities! The water signifies washing away the previous year to move on to the next one. Chiang Mai is known to be the biggest celebration, which is why I’m here!

Since we had heard that the festivities started today (even though the holiday starts on the 13), we needed to grab our arsenal and prepare for the craziness to come. I honestly could not have imagined how today would’ve turned out though.

Everyone and their mothers were selling water guns. Some more expensive than the others. We found some mega super soakers for 299 Baht and ended up getting each for 250 Baht after a little sweet talk.

We were warned that once you had anything that could make someone wet, you were prone to getting wet yourself. So we quickly made our way back to the hostel to put away anything that wasn’t water resistant. Even on our walk back we got squirted at a few times! The festivities were on.

We set back out down the road to find our friends. They sent us their breakfast location and we snuck up on them with our super soakers! We took them by surprise to kickstart our day of water fights.

The main gate of the old wall was where everything was mainly going down. We passed by it on our way to our friends and it was already a bustling spot. But this was nothing on what it’d be like only a few hours later.

There were already loads of kids running around with water guns picking fights, adults with hoses, plenty of people with buckets filled to the brim, and trucks making drive bys with people in the beds.

A battle rampaged while we were hanging with our friends at their corner cafe. While we were there, a guy I met at the retreat, Luke from the Netherlands, walked by us! He ended up hanging out with us for a bit and then we started our wander around the town.

The streets were quickly turning to mayhem as more people woke up and made their way out to the streets. After an hour of walking around, I was already getting absolutely soaked. There was no mercy! Some people even had ice water which at first was not very pleasant. But as it got to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit it got very refreshing.

One of the many Songkran traditions is pasting a powder to your face called din sor pong. There were a lot of kids on motorbikes riding around and happily putting it on everyone’s face. It apparently is a way of wishing someone good luck! It’s also good sun protection.

We worked up an appetite and found ourselves at a food court and market that was attached to a temple.

Everything was 20 to 40 Baht which was crazy cheap! I ended up getting a good soup, splitting some spring rolls, and a smoothie!

After a nice little feast, it was back into the thick of the water fight!

These honestly don’t capture the craziness and chaos ensuing. I was too nervous to pull my phone out of my pocket and even got a water proof phone bag to make sure it didn’t get destroyed when getting pelted with water.

The entire day I was soaked head to toe. I honestly hadn’t ever been this continuously wet with clothes on and it wasn’t stopping here.

We took a rest and met up with our friend Abi at McDonald’s. I hadn’t had McDonald’s in a long time and my friend offered me a fry, which gave me a nice taste of the US.

A couple of our other friends met up with us too and then we went back into the streets. By this point, everyone was out in force. The streets were jammed with people trying to get to work, travelers trying to come or go, and lots of hooligans running around super soaking everyone!

All stores were home basses for refill stations, giant buckets of water to dump on people walking by, and blasting music into the street. It was absolutely wild.

We eventually found two hostels, across the street from each other, having a turf war. So after enjoying a beer, we joined in!

Exhausted, we fought and walked our way back to the hostel after a long day of letting our inner child’s out.

It was now time for a very overdue shower! The water in the cities canals were filled up for Songkran and plenty of people were using it as the water to pelt people with… which also got in our eyes. Not the most fun to think about.

After cleaning up, I was still tired. But being hungry was more important. So Dan, Sam, and I walked to the restaurant we ate at the night before to enjoy a cheap meal.

I had one of my favorite Thai dishes, chicken with basil and rice. I was insanely full after this meal and decided I was going to relax in bed for the rest of the night.

This is just the start of the Songkran festivities… and we’re here for another 3 days of it! I’m excited to see how the festival progresses and be a part of such a fun tradition.

– Elie