September 6th, 2005 | The lowdown by Aliwyn Cole

Thai New Year Drunkeness

Songkran, the official Thai new year, is between the 13th and 16th of April. It involves everyone throwing lots of iced water over everyone, and smearing faces with white powder. This is believed to earn merit and good luck for the coming year.

As is always the case with traditions, their origins are mostly forgotten and become adapted to modern times, and the young generation of Thailand have turned Songkran into a holiday which now involves getting extremely drunk. I have to add that it is mostly the young men who get drunk, and then drive around in groups, in pickup trucks loaded with water, ice and whiskey. The Thai women who I have spoken to about this tell me that they like to keep out of the way of it all because they regard the men as crazy and impolite.

Bangsaen is a popular holiday destination with Thai people. It is on the beach and has a lot of great restaurants and bars. As a result, the Songkran holidays turn Bangsaen into a crazy roar of young men in their trucks, who get extremely drunk and then try to grope all women who are either brave or stupid enough to hang around. Water, ice and white powder fly in every direction. The roads become a powdery haze of backed up traffic. Police watch and blow their whistles frantically.

Here are some of my recollections of my experiences of Songkran over the past two years.

My first Songkran in Thailand was a one day experience which involved a bottle of the lethal Thai whiskey Sangsom, a Bin Laden mask and a water gun. I stood on the pavement, drank my whiskey and quickly became as drunk as the locals. The water gun, which cost me about 100 baht, lasted about three hours, until the plastic pump broke. By this point I no longer cared and was quite happily being smeared with white powder and was soaking wet. My boyfriend of the time nearly had a fight because so many men were trying to touch up his foreign girlfriend, or so he said. I couldn’t remember any of this when I woke up later that night on the sofa at home. For the rest of the Thai New Year, we stayed at home and watched videos, above which we could hear the drunken roar from the main road.

Last year, I returned from my island holiday on the 17th, fully expecting the New Year celebratory madness to have come to a hung-over end. I was wrong. Little did I realise that the dates were a mere guide, and in fact the revelry continued for another couple of days for the local residents. I collected my scooter from the safe parking spot I had hidden it in, and set off home. To my horror, there was what felt like thousands of extremely drunk men everywhere. The sight of a foreign woman was greeted by cries of “firrang”, and I was pelted with ice cubes and water, powder was smeared on my face and in my eyes, and before I knew it I was surrounded by young men who were groping me, I couldn’t see anything, I was soaking wet, and I had a flat tyre. I was also absolutely terrified, and thankfully found a policeman who rescued me and took me and my wrecked bike home.

This year, I was wise, and gave Bangsaen a wide birth for a whole ten days, and returned home at 9 in the evening to fully ensure I wouldn’t arrive back to a chaotic mass of out-of-control drunks. I took the public transport from the main road to my home, and sat next to two very drunk young men, who stank of booze. One had one eye clamped shut, and a silly grin on his face.

They were too oblivious to notice me, until they got off the open-backed taxi. The slightly more sober man went to pay the driver, while the other one with the one eye swayed on the pavement. Suddenly, through his one eye, he noticed me. His silly grin became wider, and he held out his hand, stumbled forward, and groaned in Thai, “give me some money”. Thankfully, the driver had been paid and we were off.

My overall impression of Songkran is this - if you are female then either keep away from Thailand or stick to the main tourist areas. If you are male, don’t bring your girlfriend if you are the jealous type or like to get extremely drunk, and most of all, be prepared for craziness.