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Thailand: what's on

April

6th - Chakri Day; celebrates the founding of the Chakri dynasty and King Rama I, who established Bangkok as the nation's capital in 1782.
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13th-15th - Songkran, the Thai New Year, sometimes referred to as the Water Festival
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May/June

The main Buddhist festival; Vesak or Buddh Purnima as it's also known - celebrating the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha - takes place on the first full moon in May, or in June if it’s a leap year. Expect public sermons and candlelit processions.

October

23rd - Chulalongkorn Day; celebrates the life of King Rama V, who, amongst other things, abolished slavery in Thailand. 
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November

Loy Krathong takes place on the night of the full moon in November. Thai people float bowls holding flowers, candles and incense in rivers and canals to get rid of bad luck.
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Click here >> for the dates of this year's full moon parties on Ko Pha Ngan

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Thai New Year

The Rites of Songkran... or how to get a free shower inThailand
Foxxie52 writes...




"The Rites of Songkran. Chances are you’ve never heard of it, and I wouldn’t blame you. I’d never heard of it either. It may be more familiar to travellers as 'Thai New Year', but if you’ve actually experienced it, you may know it as 'that time random people threw water at me in Thailand...'

I visited Thailand last April on my way over to Australia. I hadn’t planned to be there for Thai New Year, in fact, I didn’t even know when Thai New Year was! The festival is celebrated in mid-April each year, but I knew nothing about it until I was actually there in the thick of things!

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Bangkok was how totally different everything was. I know that sounds ridiculous, I wasn’t expecting a 'mini-England', but I had only ever travelled to places like America or Europe; different, but close enough to my own culture that I didn’t feel too far from home. This place was completely alien to me. In places such as France or Spain, for example, letters and numbers on local signs are familiar, even if you can’t understand what they say. Bangkok was so completely different that it didn’t even have seagulls! I thought seagulls were like McDonalds, they’re everywhere. Not so in Bangkok.

The Thai people were also different from what I was used to. For one thing, they are all short. Standing at five foot five myself, I found it extremely disconcerting to be in a country where everyone was shorter than me. Also, they always seemed to be smiling. I’ve heard it said that Thailand is the 'land of smiles' but I always dismissed it as tourist hype. Suddenly surrounded by lots of smiling people, I realised I was wrong. At first, I treated the smiles with suspicion. I wondered what everyone was smiling about, but gradually, I became accustomed to people smiling at me and I found I liked it.

It’s always a bad idea to arrive in a country without having done any research into the culture. I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t bothered. My reckoning was 'I’ll only be in Thailand for a while'. I saw it as a stopover only, not a travel destination. I was travelling with my best friend, Louise, and our lack of research was the reason we encountered our first problem after only minutes of entering our hotel. We checked in at the reception and the porter took our bags up to our room. He was efficient and courteous and even taught us a few words of Thai. Lou whispered to me, 'Do we tip him?' something I hadn’t even considered. We quickly realised we had no idea whether to or not. In the end, I whispered back, 'Let’s see if he stands there like he’s expecting it.' The porter did seem to be waiting for something so I gave him 20 baht. We later realised that amounted to only 32p so he probably wasn’t all that happy with us...

We headed out almost straight away. We caught a taxi into the main city centre and began walking around the markets lining the pavements. It didn’t take too long before Louise was targeted with a bucket of water. Shocked and surprised, I turned round only to get a face full of strange white powder that smelt like egg! All around people were throwing water and egg flour at passers-by and calling out 'Sawasdee Pi Mai' (Happy New Year). Children and adults lined the streets with hoses, buckets, water pistols - you name it, they had it in their arsenal. Every time traffic stopped on the road, it was attacked by water and egg flour. I laughed to see a bunch of teens in the back of a truck throw water back at the attackers.

At first we tried to stay dry and clean but it was a futile attempt. The ‘New Year Enthusiasts’ were everywhere. I was soon dripping wet, as was Louise. The attackers didn’t care if you signalled you were neutral, they would get you anyway. I was approached by a couple of teenaged boys, armed with egg flour. Realising resistance was futile I held up one hand and quickly removed my glasses, not wanting them damaged. The boys waited for me to put them away which I thought was very considerate. Of course, then they threw the egg flour all over me, smearing it into my hair and clothes. Lou was no better off and by the time we walked dripping into our hotel reception, we looked like anaemic ghosts! The hotel reception staff looked up and laughed as we squelched our way past. We showered and got changed in our hotel room and I was pleasantly surprised to find the egg flour was water soluble and came out of clothes easily. Looking a lot drier, I asked at reception what kind of civil war we had landed ourselves in. They explained it was Thai New Year or 'Songkran'.


Traditionally, Thai New Year is a time of rites and rituals that act as New Year blessings and Buddhist merit-making. One of these is the splashing of water. Water runs deep in the Thai New Year traditions, as a symbol of cleansing, refreshment of the spirit and all good things associated with life. As for the 'egg flour', well, that is a sign of protection and promises to ward off evil. I guess we should feel honoured that so many strangers wanted to cleanse us and protect us from evil. It doesn’t work though as salesmen still call!

After a night’s sleep, Lou and I headed out again. As soon as we stepped out of our hotel, we were accosted by men asking if we wished to ride in their tuk tuks - a bit like three-wheeled milk-floats but faster and without the milk. They’re battery-powered and driven by handlebars rather than a steering wheel. They’re also open to the air so we were a prime target for New Year Enthusiasts.

Taking a tuk tuk is not the cheapest way of seeing Bangkok. The drivers work on commission given to them by shops: they take you to the most expensive places and the shops give them money for doing it. Still, it is authentic and our driver, Chai, was very nice. He made sure he avoided all the water throwing so for once, we remained dry. He helped us to catch a river-boat cruise and Lou and I were able to see how the Thai people lived. It was certainly an eye-opener! The houses were built on stilts over the water’s edge and the Thai people sat outside (the kids armed with water pistols, naturally!) and nearly all of them had dogs. The Thais really love dogs. A lot of the houses were run down or falling apart. However, just when you begin to feel guilty for being so comparatively rich, you see a satellite dish connected to the outside or glimpse a Barbie bedspread! It was such a contrast! We also got to see the floating markets.

Lou and I got off at the temple of 'Wat Pho' which is famous for the huge Reclining Buddha statue it houses. At 20 acres large, it is the largest Wat in Bangkok, and is technically the oldest too, as it was built around 200 years before Bangkok became Thailand's capital. It holds the dual honours of having Thailand's largest reclining Buddha image and the largest number of Buddha images in Thailand.

After returning to our hotel, Lou and I paid for a ‘traditional Thai massage’. It was my first ever massage and I was expecting something nice and relaxing. What I didn’t expect was a little five-foot Thai lady who pushed on every bone until it hurt, slapped my back, moved my legs into positions legs really can’t manage and pulled each toe until it clicked. She was there ages on my big toe, tugging away until it clicked! It was horrible. Lou had had massage before and told me it was meant to be 'invigorating'. I saw nothing invigorating about feeling like you’ve been run over by a tuk tuk! I think the woman spelt her profession wrong. It should have read masochist, not masseuse! Words of advice, if you’re in Thailand and you want a 'traditional Thai massage', throw yourself under a truck. The result will be the same but it’ll be a lot cheaper!

As you can tell, Bangkok is definitely an experience and Thai New Year even more so. I would truly recommend it. Just expect to get wet, and run from any five foot lady that wants to give you a massage!"

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