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Nothing new here to report yet from the good lieutenant of Chiang Mai´s finest, but I suspect that may have something to do with the upcoming New Year Festival. Most city and Gov´t offices will be closed for about the next week. Good luck for me as far as time goes, but it does stretch out the waiting game which is the hardest part.
Yes, I know that most of you had your New Year´s parties back in January, but here they do things a little bit different. The New Year Festival is called ¨Songkran¨ here and the festivities last for about a week starting this coming monday. It´s also called the ¨water festival¨ due to it´s origins, but they do take it to the extreme (especially up here in the north). The entire country goes into a NATIONWIDE waterfight that can last up to a week. I remember last year quite well. I didn´t get dry for nearly a week even though the temps were in the 100´s. The only way to stay dry is to stay home. Even going to the corner market for eggs will get you soaked 10 times over.
The video below was posted after the 2009 Songkran festival, but was filmed only about two blocks from where I live. What you see is not just contained to one street or area here. It happens on every major street in the whole city and lasts a week. One of the wildest (and wettest) things I´ve ever experienced. Absolute chaos.
Yes, I know that most of you had your New Year´s parties back in January, but here they do things a little bit different. The New Year Festival is called ¨Songkran¨ here and the festivities last for about a week starting this coming monday. It´s also called the ¨water festival¨ due to it´s origins, but they do take it to the extreme (especially up here in the north). The entire country goes into a NATIONWIDE waterfight that can last up to a week. I remember last year quite well. I didn´t get dry for nearly a week even though the temps were in the 100´s. The only way to stay dry is to stay home. Even going to the corner market for eggs will get you soaked 10 times over.
The video below was posted after the 2009 Songkran festival, but was filmed only about two blocks from where I live. What you see is not just contained to one street or area here. It happens on every major street in the whole city and lasts a week. One of the wildest (and wettest) things I´ve ever experienced. Absolute chaos.
If you want to learn more about the history and festival traditions of Songkran, check out this video. It explains it alot better than I can and saves me alot of typing for which I have to pay for the privilege.
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