Songkran is Thailand’s New Year Festival. Here’s a guide to some of the location in Bangkok that are great to celebrate this festival!
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What is Songkran?
Thailand uses the Buddhist Calendar. This ancient calendar marks the solar year. The beginning of which is when the Sun enter Aires (astronomical movement in the sky). For Thai’s, this means that the new year is on the 13th of April.
The New Year festival is a national holiday. With most companies giving their employees a minimum of three days off, and most others giving 5 days off, from the 13th April to 18th April.
Songkran itself, is a very old tradition filled with many activities like, praying, Merit Making (at temples), visiting loved ones, cleaning tidying. The act of pouring water on yourself or on Buddhist Status is part of the many activities, and it symbolises the cleansing of your past bad luck or sins, to start fresh and a new for the coming year.
And it’s this Water Festival, the modern version of it that we’ll be talking about specifically in this article.
Where in Bangkok is Songkran Celebrated
Actually it’s everywhere. But here we’ll talk about the Water Festival.
Silom Road
The whole of Silom. Particularly where it connects to Lumpini Park, is where you’ll find the most extreme water fighting in Bangkok, perhaps the country.
Lumpini Park will host concerts, due to the large, and central space it occupies. There will be a lot of market stalls and a lot of things you can do there. Because of this you will find a lot of people start out there and fan out, filtering south side into Silom Road for the water fighting.
Silom Road can be easily accessed using the Bangkok BTS (see more about Bangkok’s public transport and how to use them here).
Warning about Silom Road: One of the Soi’s in Silom road is the Red Light District. This means that if you near that Soi, you’ll find adult workers also joining in the fun. This has the effect of ratching-up the aggressiveness and craziness of the water fight games.
Khao San Road
The nice thing about Songkran is that it’s over many days, and you can enjoy the Water Fight Festival in many locations in Bangkok.
For most visitors to Thailand, Khao San Road needs no introduction. But if you want one, feel free to read up our blog A Brief Intro to Khao San Road here.
Maybe more fun than Silom Road. The down side is that it’s not as spacious as Silom, which has many roads and lanes as well as a big cross junction. Khao San road however is the best place to enjoy Songkran if you want to party with a lot of tourists and people from your home country, as most of them will be in and around that area at some point.
Another great things about Khao San is that you have all the restaurants and bars there. So you’ll have good food and drinks, you’ll also be able to party late into the night because of all the bars and night clubs there. It’s quite an experience.
Other Locations
In the Center of Bangkok, you will find that the water festival is happening everywhere. at every junction, on every road.
Some other places where the build up of Water Fighting might spill over to:
- Main Roads
- Asok
- Phaya Thai
- Victory Monument
- Democracy Monument
If you are in Bangkok on the 13th – 15th of April, and you are outside, it will be nearly impossible for you not to get water splashed on you.
Water Fighting Tips and Tricks
Ice
Thailand is hot, April is very hot. People will be throwing water on you. When someone throws ice cold water on you, you feel it to the bone. And to be honest it’s nice to see the look on their faces, and their reactions.
But do not over do it. Have fun in a respectful way. That’s how Thai’s like to enjoy things.
Being overly aggressive is not something that Thai’s like to see or be near. So make sure if you are using ice cold water that you do it sensibly, not maliciously.
Perfumed Water
The really nice people who are in the water fights are the ones that have scented water. You can buy these perfumes from seller, and add it to your water to make it smell nice.
The nice people who do this are brining a sense of friendliness and warmth to the celebrations. Making you feel more like one big family.
When you meet them, you’ll know it instantly, and you’ll see how nice it is that someone the scent of flower on you, as opposed to trying the blind you by splashing water in your eyes.
Water Gun
The bigger the Better. but you will be throwing it away after wards most likely.
Fortunately in Thailand the prices are not too high. But you will be able to have a lot more fun if you have a bigger gun in this case. So do not be shy in investing in one for the 3 days that this festival is around.
Plastic Cases
Street sellers will sell plastic wallets that you can use to put your phone, your money in. Anything that you do not want to get wet.
This is highly recommended. As there is no way of walking outside in Bangkok and not be completely drenched in water.
There’s no way to say “no”
If you are outside during Songkran in Bangkok, or any of the major cities, you will be splashed, a lot. You cannot say “no” it might work once, but literally everyone outside is there for a water fight, and you will not get consensus from the millions there.
You will get wet, and you can’t just say “no”. The only escape is to stay in doors for those 3 days.
Conclusion
There are some great places in Bangkok to go for Songkran festival. Including Khao San Road, Silom Road, Lumpini Park.
But you’ll find Water Fighting everywhere in Bangkok. So you might as well join in.
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