Videos of the Month
Songkran: New Year's Festival
One of our initial plans this year was to actually escape and travel during the Songkran festival. Last year it was fun and I’m glad we took part, but it is certainly a challenge at times. For 5-days you couldn’t safely walk to the local 7-11 without the threat of getting wet. I highly recommend enjoying it if you are here, but it’s a lot of mayhem. I also have discovered that Diane reacts exactly like a cat when squirted with water. So, maybe a run to the city of Da Lat for cooler weather in the mountains of Vietnam? Unfortunately, because of a delay with SSA (social security) and other bureaucratic issues, we chose to hang out here. Don’t get me wrong – one day of Songkran is super fun. But not five days. And the youthful Thai population really run with it here in Chiang Mai. In smaller towns families gather for picnics only on the day of Songkran. The kids have those small water pistols to squirt each other. So, pointing a squirt gun at a neighbor, giving it a squeeze and having a laugh represents cleansing in Thai culture. But here in CM, Bangkok and Phuket there can be 6 adults in the beds of pickup trucks containing a 55-gallon storage vessel for ‘ammunition’ and everyone armed with some type of pump-action-super-soaker-attack-gun. And then, for backup a ‘small bucket’ … for what? Just in case? Geez!
As it turned out, the day of Songkran was fun. Watch the video above. This year was very different than our first ‘hot season’ last year. Instead of 6-weeks of 106 plus degrees, it has yet to break 99. And… it rained like the dickens on Songkran evening. True to the undeterred Thai, ‘several thousand’ people still showed up in the pouring rain at the main stage adjacent to Maya Mall to listen to live bands 300 meters from our bedroom window… until midnight. They have a big screen on the side of the mall so we can sit on the deck and watch and hear the bands play.
Luckily it was 90 and a fair amount of sun in the afternoon when I was out and about shooting video. Last year the air quality from seasonal burning was more than noticeable with IQAir ratings of more than 200. As I type this, we have single digits on that scale. That is rocky mountain snow capped mountain levels of clean air.
We may have come to an epiphany. Diane and I are happy in the neighborhood of Nimman in Chiang Mai. Yes, lots of travelers… so not known as being strictly a ‘Thai neighborhood” but we, and by ‘we’ I mean the residents of Nimman rock \m/ I’ve observed and, in some small part, have partaken in a Thai holiday known as Songkran. I’ve never, anywhere, seen so much enthusiasm or such unbridled verve.
As we sit, watching the constant parade of vehicles on the street across the parking lot 7 stories below our deck, I am reminded that it is ok to be impressed by youth. We somewhat live vicariously through them, since we are… ‘kinda elderly’ in our mid 60’s… otherwise known as mid-century modern.
In days of yore, we might have seen this and remarked to each other, with an Ivy League accent, “look, lovey, there is an energetic young chap playing drums on the back of a pickup truck”. We might have smiled and held hands as we swayed back and forth, knowing we would remember. But now, we are both clutching our cell phones wondering if we should “save” this moment and share it rather than just soaking it in. Times have changed.
We have our plates of ‘take-out’ food presented ‘carpet picnic ‘ style while watching the evening news as the youth, or what may be described as our younger doppelgangers, stroll by displaying their endless energy and enthusiasm. Carpe Diem.
If I was not only a cat, but a cat having an epiphany… this would be me.
We could have chosen to live on the beach… or Bangkok, or some small village out in the sticks. Even a different neighborhood in CM. But we are here, and this is our new home. Yes, I like a day or two of Songkran… but certainly not the 5 or 6 that we are promised.
Geez, in the early evening on day three of Songkran, when it was really hot and loud, we lose power. Ahhhhrrgggggg! We need to order food to be delivered, ‘cos I’m not going out there again! This means I’ll skip down 7 flights of stairs, meet the delivery guy on his scooter and slowly trudge back up…. 7 flights. Luckily, we soon gain power back and our life-saving AC units kick back on. Yay!
We get another year... yay!
We are required to renew our Type O Retirement Visa each year. Ours are now good until May of 2026. How else does one celebrate signing on for another year? With ice cream, of course.
(BTW that plate is even more delicious than it looks. Strangely more delicate yet popping with more flavor than normally possible.)
Don’t forget to check out Diane’s YouTube channel at: Ate Diane Sings at Sacred Heart Cathedral
Thank you so much for reading/watching our blog/vlog!! We are leaving next week for Taiwan for a five-day run. If I remember to turn my camera on, there should be a Taipei video in our May post.