Songkran in Bangkok

Marco Whyte|2024-04-11 (8 months ago)70 views

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Welcome to Thailand, it's time for a party like no other, Songkran! This is the Thai new year and is typically for 3 days, but in Bangkok the celebration goes on for much longer. This celebration all over Thailand is a water festival where everyone splashes each other with water guns, buckets, and other unique ways. With the extreme heat of the city at this time of year, it makes a fun way to stay cool, interact with others, and celebrate!

Before Songkran started, I tried a famous street stand that has a Michelin star, serving mango sticky rice. Something so simple really deserves all the hype it gets, as it offers the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors with delightful textures.

Later that night, we went to Sanam Luang, which has a pre-songkran celebration. Street food, live music, Muay Thai, and shockingly elephants! It was a little sad because it did seem like these elephants were not treated very well, they were trained to grab cash from nearby people and hand it to the man on top.

Bangkok is very well known for its temples. It felt like everywhere you looked there was a different impressive temple. I went to the Grand Palace, serving as the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782. Covered in gold with multiple buildings, it truely is impressive.

Bangkok has so much to see, and I did a lot more, but that could go on forever. Now it is time for the fun part, Songkran! I joined up with Jan and it was time to start celebrating, which required our weapon, a strong water gun!

We were ready, and very quickly we had a bucket of water dumped on us. You have to shoot back! Approximately 25% of the water is ice cold, so you never know how it will feel. We went to Silom Road, close to my apartment and one of the biggest places to celebrate in Bangkok. Endless amounts of people, water and smiles goes on for miles here!

We continued this water fun for 3 more days, each day just as fun as the last until it was finally time to escape to an island. (Koh Tao Island)