April 12th is a day of celebration. Don’t
get me wrong, I am not saying this because it is my birthday but because it is
really a day of celebration. In fact, in Thailand it’s the beginning of a whole
week of celebration. It is the time of Songkran, which is the Thai New Year.
People in Bangkok celebrate it for three consecutive days by throwing water at
each other and putting a kind of pale yellow powder, apparently made up of
flour paste, on people’s faces. Likewise, it is the New Year for many Asian
countries such as India, Cambodia, Nepal, etc. This birthday has definitely been
the most special one because I felt as if the whole world was celebrating it
with me (also this is my 25th birthday, silver jubilee of my birth!).
On the morning of my birthday, we had a small
celebration at the office to start the Songkran, where we all blessed each other
with water and then had coconut ice cream. Two other staff at my office also
had their birthdays on the same date so that was kind of exciting! Later we
went for lunch at a Japanese restaurant at the end of Khaosan Road, which went
on for almost couple hours. This was the longest lunch I have had during office
hours. But thankfully I was able to finish the work that I wanted to by the end
of the day. After work, few of my work colleagues and I went to “happy hour” at
Phra Atit Lounge, a restaurant nearby my office. So we all went there and
ordered Chang beer, one of the most commonly sold Thai beers. Although I did
not like this beer before, I was actually enjoying it this time to my surprise.
Also, a friend brought blueberry pie (since she could not find any cake shops
open) that I cut as my birthday cake.
After the happy hour was over, we went to “Good
Story” across Phra Atit Lounge to play pool. I think we played at least 5 games
there swapping partners, out of which my team won 2. It was 9 PM by then, too
early to go home or to a bar so instead we decided to go to the roof of one of
our colleagues’ apartment buildings. It was great fun there, as we sat on the
wall of the roof looking upon a klong (small river in Thai) with our legs
hanging down. My friends were sipping beer and I was sipping water J. In couple
hours my friends became hungry and started craving for McDonalds. Although I am
strongly against such fast food places, McDonalds delivers 24 hours in Bangkok so
my friends ordered Big Mac for themselves and chicken nuggets for me (chicken
nuggets?).When I asked why they ordered those for me, they insisted that I told
them to, lol. They were too drunk for me to argue with them so instead I just
enjoyed my chicken nuggets.
By midnight we were quite tired and my friend was
falling asleep on her chair so we decided to get back home, promising each
other a full day and night party the next day (actual Songkran day). Next day,
my Thai friend called me around 11 am, saying she will be stopping by in about
an hour to go to Khaosan for playing Songkran. So I had to hurry and get ready
for the game. We were joined by another friend of hers. So three of us headed
to Khaosan and were joined by another friend soon. It was crazy!!! There was a
great combination of locals and foreigners splashing and shooting water at each
other along with some people going crazy with the powder paste. After couple
hours at Khaosan, we decided to pick one of our colleagues from his house and took
a Tuk Tuk together all the way to Silom. It was much more crowded and crazier.
After taking half way walk through the crowded street, we all got hungry and again
McDonalds was open!!! So we went there and this time I got a chicken burger. We
wanted to refill our water guns but they had closed their restrooms so instead
we went across the road where we paid 10 baht each to use a restroom and fill
our guns. We also met more colleagues from work. Then we pushed (literally,
where I was using one of our tough built colleagues to push us all through) our
way to the fire department’s water hose. The strong water force from the fire
hose was great fun. This reminded me of my childhood when I used to take bath
in the fields by the irrigation water borings.
After a while we decided to climb on the water truck
and spray everyone from up there. It was the most fun thing of the day for me.
My other colleagues started climbing the truck as well and once the truck got
crowded the firemen kicked us out. After couple hours in Silom, I was getting
cold and tired so I decided to go back home and get dry (later learned that my
other friends left soon after I did as well so I did not miss much). We all met
for dinner at Pla Dib, a famous Japanese style restaurant in Aree. After a long
dinner there, we decided to go to The Nest, one of the night bars/clubs in
Sukumvit area that majority of us had not been to. But on our way we stopped at
a traffic light at Victory Monument, where there is a nice jazz bar called
Saxophone. So within the red traffic light span of 38 seconds we decided to
check that one out instead. It was my first time there and I loved the live
music that the band was playing. My colleague ordered me Bombay Rouge as my
birthday treat. By midnight, I was getting a little tired. It had been a long
day (or a long week since I had been going out so much) so I wanted to go home
and rest.
Next day I got a call from my mom early morning wishing
me a Happy New Year and Jurshital. Jurshital is a tradition in my Mithila
culture by which elders bless you with icy cold water for strength and courage
to face any cold situations in life. This is of course very similar to
Songkran, the one difference though is that instead of flour powder we smear
each other with mud. Likewise, Holi is very similar tradition, which is
celebrated with colored water and powder colors. It is always fascinating to
find different countries and cultures having similar traditions. This makes me
ponder on how similar we humans are regardless of the artificially created borders.
