Songkran 2009: Protests, Water fights and the long journey home

Usually the Songkran Celebration is a time of joy, throwing water, dancing in the streets and visiting temples. Our Songkran took a surprising turn of events and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a village in Issan. This is how it happened: we had planned to stay in Lampang for the festival and play water with our friends. About a week before the festival, Otto got a phone call from his sister. Apparently his dad had been put in the hospital by his crazy neighbor. Otto's father had gone to talk to the neighbor about fixing the road and the guy went crazy and beat him up. It's barbaric to think of someone beating up an 80-year-old man, but this kind of thing seems to be pretty commonplace in the villages where people are quite poor and uneducated. So we decided that we would make the trip to Otto's town Ubon Ratchathani (a mere 800 kilometers from Lampang). Because of the proximity of the holiday, we were unable to get bus or train tickets so we decided to drive. Unfortunately this meant that we would cut our time short with our friend Josh who was leaving to go back to the states.

We planned to leave on Saturday morning and drive to Khon Kaen (about a 9 hour drive) but Otto's car was having problems. We took it to the shop and found out that the water cooler was full of holes so they attempted to fix it. After 3 hours, they called us and said that they would need to completely replace it and the car wouldn't be ready until 5 that night. So we decided to stay in Lampang and spend another night with Josh and get to play water a little bit. That left us only 4 days to get to Ubon and back. Sunday we spent the entire day driving. We passed through a national park full of steep rocky cliffs, we got serenaded by baristas at a gas station coffee shop, we got water thrown at the car, and we got very frustrated by the length of the trip. As we passed by towns and villages, many people were out throwing water and wearing their red shirts which support the anti-government movement. Issan is known as the poorest part of Thailand and many of the people support the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra because he was one of the first leaders in Thailand to pass legistation that helped the poor.

In Khon Kaen we were lucky to stay at Otto's friend's apartment. We had also heard that there was a local brewery in the Sofitel so we hit that up. The next morning, we got on the road to Ubon and people were celebrating Songkran in full swing. People were drinking early and dancing insanely to a song called "Hair of the Dog." We finally got to Ubon and found our hotel. We made it out to the village in time to see the merit-making ceremony for Otto's father. Issan people believe that when you encounter an accident or get injured, part of your soul comes out of your body. So the shaman had to go to the place where the accident happened and collect his soul in a fishing net. Then he brought it back to Otto's father who was holding a boiled egg in one hand and sticky rice in another. After some incantations, it was apparent that the soul had been brought back and people crowded around Otto's father tying the white strings of blessing on his wrists. People even attached money to the strings so his wrists were covered in bills. There were many many old villagers there and they decided to give me their blessing by tying strings on my wrist as well. I suppose I was the first foreigner they had ever met and so they were rightfully curious and interested in me. After the ceremony, everyone was served a traditional lunch. I was glad to see that Otto's father was doing well and looked happy to see us. That night we spent time with Otto's family and his close childhood friend.

We had to leave the next day. We drove back to Khon Kaen and this time stayed in a hotel. We were looking for the hotel in the city when we got stuck in a huge Songkran traffic jam. Everyone was hanging out of their cars and trucks throwing water and white powder. The cars didn't move for 30 minutes so we just ended up getting out and walking down the street, playing water with everyone. There was a truck full of teenage boys next to us who was dancing up a storm. Some of them were wearing girls' school uniforms and easter bonnets. I guess you can say that anything goes during Songkran. It's Thai people's one opportunity a year to be completely outrageous. The next day we worked our way slowly back to Lampang. It was hot, we were tired and there was absolutely no vegetarian food to be found. We were more than cranky by the time we got home. It had not been the Songkran I envisioned. It was much more difficult, but completely worth it when we got to see Otto's father. And it was good to know that we could get through difficult times together and still keep our heads. Most of all, I was relieved to hear Otto say, "We will never be doing that drive again!" After 2 days back, I prepared a nice romantic evening for Otto and I and we were able to celebrate the Thai new year in style.