If you browsed youtube or a myriad travel blogs from the last decade, you might be led to believe that Songkran - the traditional Thai New Year - has always been about massive tourist driven water fights in Khao San Road, Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket, involving huge water pistols and basically a week of drunken wet watery wars in what's normally a fairly conservative culture.
It certainly SEEMS that way when you're in those big tourist spots, but actually it's NOT the way Thai people prefer to celebrate or relax over the biggest holiday of their cultural year.
This year - 2022 - waterplay and water throwing in public has AGAIN been banned - 3rd year in a row. Ostensibly due to the risk of Covid infection, but Thai people are an indirect group at best, and it's probably far more accurate to say that collectively Thai people realize they've made some big mistakes in selling out their traditions and are back-pedaling fast on the cheap back-packer western tourist culture which lacks cultural respect.
Despite much complaining and public grumpiness in the expat forums online, the majority of Thai people in my immediate world were actually relieved about the bans. They're worried about needing time off if they get sick from covid, in a country where sick pay is a rarity and many are on their economic knees.
And so in a strange way that no one could ever have anticipated 3 years ago, Songkran 2022 is far more traditional and incredibly Thai.
What does that mean? It meant that our extended-blended family decided to head out of town to a Thai hot spot for Songkran today - not the insane youtube level experience, but a whole, different chilled vibe. How Thai was it? I did not see another western "farang" person ALL DAY.
We went to an un-named spot along the Mae Wang River that all the Thai people know - before Mae Win and where the river hugs Highway 1013 for a kilometer or so. The river is quite shallow here and it's a favorite bamboo rafting spot in the wet season, when the river runs high and fast. Today? The river, although cold and flowing briskly, lazed its way down through exposed rocks and created a fabulous spot for tired Thai families to get their spicy festival foods on, with a few cold beers.
The bamboo huts line the river bank on one side and the roofs are made from last season's teak leaves.
For 60 baht (USD $1.80) you get a shaded family spot all day - a low Thai style table, woven mat to sit on, free cosmic air conditioning 😆 and a great bird's eye view of your kids playing in the river. There's an unspoken rule that you also BUY SOMETHING from the small roadside restaurant being run by the owner of the huts. Today we ordered steamed fish from them, several different versions of spicy som tum (papaya salad) and half a dozen bottles of beer. They were happy, we enjoyed their food along with our Thai picnic (sticky rice, Thai bbq chicken - gai yang - fresh fruit, snacks and soft drinks) and it was a Thai-family-budget-friendly win-win.
Quick side note for novice non-Thai travelers: this is a Thai language only kinda place, and there are zero concessions for non-Thai speakers. My vegetarian som tum came minus the crabs and fermented fish but PLUS the tiny prawns. 🤣 It was awesome and wickedly spicy - raw eggplant, long beans, green papaya, chili, lime, tomato - I just picked the prawns out. Thai style.
It being my Thai daughter's last Thai Songkran for quite a few years (she heads off to college in Holland in late July) we were all about making memories. That's me on the left. 😁
Which also meant we were there with her Thai father, 7 year old half brother and the next-wife model of me. 🤣
What I love about travel and culture is they way different people groups do things.
I took such pleasure from watching random strangers helping an old, unsteady grandpa across the river. He did NOT want the indignity of being carried (it was offered) and so the people all around us formed a chain with floating tires to help steady him as he wobbled his way to where his family group had set up on the other bank.
Despite being an iconic family Songkran spot, there are few amenities. There's one dodgy toilet at the restaurant by the road, and most people just relieved themselves in the dense jungle nearby. No swings or children's playgrounds, but rubber inner tubes are for rent on holidays like today. No lifeguards - but big brothers, moms, grandpas and sisters did their thing in keeping the little ones safe.
We spent HOURS and HOURS paddling, the kids swam up river where it was deeper, and literally hundreds of people lazed in the shade, drank, ate and drank some more. No fights, no arguments, no raised voices beyond squeals of delight.
We concluded a fabulously local Thai Songkran day with a unique tradition: a lottery ticket.
I offered to split our winnings with the lady lottery ticket seller WHEN we win 😁 but she declined to give me any way to locate her when that time comes 😁 and asked simply that we make merit for her at our favorite Buddhist temple. Deal.
Mae Wang is about 45 mins out of Chiang Mai central, travelling out along the Canal Road. There's not much transport out that way but plenty of local songtaew drivers who know the spot, starting from either Chiang Mai, Mae Hia or Hang Dong.
So next Songkran, after Covid restrictions are finally abandoned, when all of the other mindless tourists start gearing up for urban water wars with over-sized plastic pistols, tell them you're off to Mae Wang to celebrate the Songkran Water Festival local-Thai-style.
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This sounds like my kind of celebration, one that brings the community together and where you slow down and enjoy the simple things in life. love all the photos xxxx
Yes, it's all about the community and being outside and slowing down in the shade on a hot, hot day. You would have had a ball with your girls in the river, I'm sure!
It seems that you had a great time at the riverside in Mae Wang on Songkran Day. The Som Tum looks yummy.
Hope next Songkran Days, we can start splashing water again.... ;)
Som Tum was goood!!! And yes, we're looking forward to all this Covid 'thing' calming, to Thailand dropping all the restrictions etc and to people being free to travel.
I hope we DON'T go back to the tourist crazy of yesteryear though... 😊
I do really hope so! 🙂
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