It is very different in Pattaya PE, not sure about samui as never been there for songkran.

However in Pattaya there are no rules at all. You can and will be basically assaulted at anytime between the 12th and the 20th. It is just a pain. There is no real fun to it, just an excuses for drunk dick head 2 week, once a year tourists, to soak you with ice water and you cant do anything about it. And this isnt in the fun organized way you have seen in bkk the last few days.

I am talking about people who deliberately throw water and liniment into the eyes of passing motorcyclists, as if it would be the funniest thing in history if they crashed and died. People who throw ice cubes at people's heads, the guys who think it's absolutely hilarious to spend all day squirting water at the breasts and vaginas of women and teenage girls they have never met, and people who deliberately wet others who are obviously in possession of expensive electronic equipment, and then when given a talking to by the owner who is trying to protect his $2000 piece of equipment say "hey chill out bro, it's Songkran!" as if that makes it ok to destroy people's property. All extremely common during Songkran. Songkran is also the #1 day in Thailand for sexual assaults, fights, murders, and road accidents.

Yesterday I didn't even come out until 3pm, yet by 7pm I had seen 3 people hit by motorbikes or cars, 2 street fights and a ****load of angry arguments. And that was just in the 1 soi where I spent my day, couldn't have been more than 100 people there. There's nothing wrong with the idea of Songkran. Like I said, the problem is that many tourists use it as an excuse to just act like utter douchebags for the day, as if the fact that it's a holiday means that all standards of behaviour just go out the window.

PS, the actual Thai holiday of Songkran bears little resemblance to what you see nowadays in tourist areas. The water is meant to be used as a blessing and sprinkled on people, not thrown violently at their face. There is a reason you don't see many adult Thais throwing water at people for hours like manaics: They are adults, and that sort of behaviour is meant for kids only. See here for a video of an actual Songkran participated in by Thais: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LnFC_6wGGI

In happier news, the hooker who I recruited last night in my drunken Songkran haze (don't even remember barfining anyone) has spent the last hour cleaning my apartment in her underwear.

okay well I have been in thailand longer then most so I feel like i know songkran pretty well after doing it for one day. I always say the type of expat and even tourist to some degree is way more classy then in BKK than any other part of Thailand (CM/BKK/islands). So maybe thats why spiv is crying soo much.

I went to cowboy/nana/patpong, going to be tourist infested, i did see a few (less then 1%<) where looked like they were being douchbags, but for the most part they were all fine. And what you said spiv, once again its a very small percentage of people who throw ice and try to wet your electronic items. I was out all day yesterday, everyone was smiling. With any event, there are always a few people who go full ******, but lets not focus on them and spin it like the holiday is so bad. But I guess you wont rest till everyone in Thailand is sad and miserable.

As for the pain part, its only water, even if they are shooting it in your face with a really powerful water gun. Also only 9days of the year you still have another 356 days left.

Ill teach you some mediation techniques next time you here.

Pics or it didnt happen.

Don't need mediation as I have been through 15 of them and know exactly how to avoid it, luckily bkk will be all done by the time it kicks off here bigtime, and when that happens I'll be in bkk drinking your bottle. win-win. imo

15 lol sample size, just variance, come back after 500 of them and tell us what you think

I drove by Thapae Gate the other day and all the western tourists were VERY deliberate in aiming for my face as I rode by. I am with Spiv on this one for sure. Although no, getting soaking in ice water by itself doesn't get me upset at all. It is the fact that people are seriously endangering others and they should know better.

Was in soi 4 all yesterday afternoon and early evening. Saw zero fights or incidents + 50฿ for a can of beer.



















bonus pic

I´ve been here for 6 SongKrans now, all in Phuket, and have yet to see a fight break out or people throwing ice cubes or similar. Maybe I just run good.
However, the way they throw water in the face of bike drivers is obviously ridiculous, but from what I´ve seen its farang and Thais alike who do it.

Every single day tourists are endangering the lives of themselves and others by the way they act in the traffic (talking about Phuket and motorbikes in particular). Many young guys treat the motorbikes like a piece of toy, passing on the inside going 70 kmh on curvy mountain roads etc.
So doing stupid drunken **** is not isolated to Songkran for these morons, unfortunately.

#YOLO

Songkran is the nuts!

Teenage thai boys are not immune to stupidity either. In fact they're probably even more stupid than tourists.

hey guys, going to take a flight out of samui to penang on firefly for visa run. Can you guys tell me anything about penang, or places to stay or anything I need to know about the thai embassy and getting tourist visa. Thanks

had a full helmet / mask on and a guy nicked me with his bucket trying to get underneath my mask...

for the most part its cool. thais dont drink that much and the kids love it, but its also an excuse to drink at 9 that many westerns are waiting for.

I stayed at tune hotel, its about 900 baht / night. small room good bed and good internet. theres another place better location that spiv + others recommend cant remember name, has a pool and maybe shady internet.

penang is nice for a few days. indian and chinese food is dirt cheap, a nice break from the thai rotation. a lot fewer tourists than thailand, and those you'll meet will be the chiang mai crowd.

go to a travel agent they'll do all the visa **** for you for about 1500.

oh get malay money b4 you go. cab from airport is about 400, but if you pay in thai like I did it works out to 700 as they rape you on exchange.

not much for nightlife there, enjoy the food and gtfo

Continental Hotel on Penang Road is my recommendation for hotel. 1200 baht a night with a pool and breakfast included.
http://www.hotelcontinental.com.my/

This place doesn't have wifi in your room though, if you want to do some grinding while there, the Hotel Malaysia next door has that, it costs 150 baht a day extra for the wifi though, and they don't have a pool.

There are a few hotels on Chulia/Muntri st for 500 per night, these are also the ones that will get your visa for you. Visa service is 400 baht + whatever the visa costs, for that price you'd be crazy to do it yourself, cab fare to and from the embassy is more than 400 baht.

riding a motorbike during songkran is just ******ed unless your only on a highway or something(and this coming from someone who has had a bike in bkk for 2 years). You KNOW they are going to do this, but decide to ride your bike anyways...don't be angry at them

Been 2 weeks in Thailand, right now at Koh Phangan.
Tomorrow going to samui and from there with a plane to phuket and then BKK-macau.

But as I understand there is a very high chanche that all my traveling stuff gets super wet be4 I sit on a samui-phuket plane?
Here songkran was only 1 day.

Some people actually have things to do, and have no choice.

The ******ed person is the person throwing water into the eyes of a motorcyclist.

Songkran finished yesterday in Samui, you'll be fine.

thank god.

ice cold water didn't felt very good tbh

I bought cheap 100 baht adapters/converters for my electronics, but me and few others have had some weird anomalies with our phones... Is it possible that even with this adapter there is some mismatch in electricity and this f*cks up our phones?

Also in some hotels it is possible to fit EU socket to wall directly with no adapter, is it safe to do so or I should always use adapter?

you don't need any converters for euro stuff as long as the plug fits the socket

It wasn't even songkran yet.

just a quiet night in today

^^ That is the maddest photo ive ever seen on here, I think you have flipped your lid. Could you degrade that poor girl anymore

I am sure he can degrade her more if he puts his mind to it, sounds like a challenge imo