Celebrating Thailand's Water Festival in Chiang Mai in 2018
Wow, all I can say is that April last year looked really different than it does this year. Last year, we were still in Thailand and celebrating Songkran in Chiang Mai! Songkran was one of the most unique and best experiences we had in Thailand. Every year, the entire city of Chiang Mai erupts into a 5-day long water fight, celebrating the Thai New Year. Yes, you read that right. FIVE FULL DAYS! The most important of the ancient traditions of Songkran is the symbolic presence of water. In Thai culture, water is believed to purify the spirit, both cleansing the body of bad luck as well as blessing it with good fortune. During Songkran, locals would pour water over Buddha statues for cleansing purposes, then collect this water and re-use it to bless village elders and family members by sprinkling it onto their shoulders. Nowadays, this tradition of pouring water on others has been taken to the extreme in the form of Songkran’s world-famous water festival.
We went out and celebrated Songkran for 2 days. At the end of the 2nd day, we were tired of being wet all day. At the time, we were living in a pet-friendly hotel with Daisy, Uan, and Kipling. We rented a truck and drove up from Bangkok to Chiang Mai with our stuff and the three dogs. The drive was about 10 hours and we did it in ONE DAY. The pet-friendly hotel was cool with us staying there for a month while we figured out how long we were going to stay in Chiang Mai and more permanent accommodations. We ended up spending a total of 3 months in Chiang Mai!
It’s fun looking back at all the adventures we had with our dogs. Look at how tiny Kipling was!
We took the dogs on walks twice a day. There was a beautiful bridge that crossed the Ping River that we liked to cross into the Chinatown area of the city. The dogs really enjoyed all the smells and occasional pets they’d get from strangers. We usually walked them early in the morning or right at sunset when it wasn’t too hot out.
In preparation for Songkran, we bought ourselves some waterproof camera cases and went out into the action. John helped me film the YouTube travel video while I took photos for my blog! Sadly it took me a year to post about it, but better late than never!
Overall, I’m really thankful to have been able to experience Songkran. We definitely feel lucky with the timing of everything. This year Songkran festivities have been cancelled due to COVID-19. This is such a happy and important festival, I imagine it’s eerie to look out and see the city empty during this time!
Thanks for reminiscing with me! Stay tuned for more photos and blog posts from our travels abroad!