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Songkran in Bangkok

  • Writer: Sanra Refira
    Sanra Refira
  • Apr 21, 2019
  • 2 min read

Updated: Oct 29, 2023

While most people celebrate New Year once a year, that's not the case in Thailand. Thailand has a national New Year called Songkran. This year it started on 13 April 2019 and ended on 14 April 2019. Around 3 million people sometimes come to Thailand to celebrate together. People take to the streets with water pistols. They randomly spray hot or cold water. April is the hottest month in Thailand, it can reach 38°C and I am not only talking about the weather, but also the wind. It has brought us a hot wind breeze for at least one fine month. People might expect to be splashed with cold water.

Stranger no danger.

If we are talking about water guns, that means we need ammunition to reload and it is water. It was a hilarious and fun day because those days when you know that non-drinking water is the most sellable in all of Thailand. They sold for ฿100 for unlimited refills and another ฿10 for a one-time refill. Then an old lady shouted "Water, water!" and people excitedly gathered in a circle, forming a queue. I was given a cute, small but rather wide tank to play with. However, its shooting power was nothing compared to the giant water pistol. I still found it functional. I urged.


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Before go to Silom for Songkran

The celebrations took place over 3 days. I was only there on Sunday, and that was enough for me to capture some appealing moments. There was a young woman selling an omelette with rice or just sausage and grilled seafood with satay. I asked myself how she managed to protect her stove from a brutal water attack and she was completely dry. I suppose it was like a saviour for starving people and had to be protected from any attack. The Seven-Eleven -711- near my office building was operating normally with the wet floor in all the aisles. 711 wrapped all the pastries perfectly and that is what you called taking chances. I believe 711 has made profits in more than one multiple. Moving on to the other eye-catching moment when I found three young girls wearing the 'off-white' symbols in three colours, red, magenta and orange. First of all, if you're going to play water on Songkran, never wear a raincoat or you'll be shot in all directions by a water pistol. Nevertheless, they made Songkran more colourful while others wore black or Cuban collar shirts.


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Selling Omelette and Rice

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in "Off-White" (?) Rain Coat

Some organisations take the 4 days off during Songkran. Mine didn't. I went straight to work by taxi at 9am, bringing my spare clothes and my WWF raincoat. I was safe and dry. Myself and other colleagues suspected that we were definitely not safe after office hours, so we kept our raincoats on to protect our belongings, not to mention that my trousers were wet because people on the street thought I was an easy target because of my appearance. Successfully protected my belongings on the BTS - Bangkok Train System - but not my trousers.

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Heading Back from Office

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Last Day of Songkran

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© 2024 by Sanra Refira

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