Songkran 2010

[Guest]

I went from Beach road to Tuk Com and was splashed over and over and over and over again. Totally drenched MANY times over. Also, these PCV pipes can hurt. I had about 40 shots of these mostly by Falang. They gun for the face and not the body.

 

I don't think there is anyway to go out without getting wet unless you are inside a car. Every baht bus I saw on Beach Road and Second Road got soaked.

[Guest jomtien]

Apparently, in Pattaya so far most of the water splashing has been confined to a small area along Beach Road. PATTAYA ONE is reporting that tourists on baht buses who did not expect any of this just yet were quite angry and went to the police. The police were out there confiscating the water guns.

 

You can view the story and a few photos on PATTAYA ONE. And who do you see in the photos busy shooting water at people? You guessed it . . . mostly drunken farang.

 

Pattaya Songkran-related water fighting begins

 

 

We must get different pictures when we click on that link! I get mostly Thais. As to the state of drunkenness I can't tell.

[Gaybutton]

We must get different pictures when we click on that link! I get mostly Thais. As to the state of drunkenness I can't tell.

Put on your glasses. I see mostly farang. Yes, it's an assumption on my part that they're drunk, but I've driven by that area a million times and I always see them drinking starting early in the morning even when it is not Songkran. They're shooting water at people from bars. What do you think they're doing there, having a cup of coffee?

 

I could be wrong about my assumption, but probably not, especially when it reached a point that people complained to the police, enough so that the police actually pursued the complaints. Other than when that idiot (a farang) was arrested for putting acid in his squirt gun and injuring a young boy a few years ago, this is the only time I can recall the police going after the water shooters.

 

I blame the bars as much as the farang doing the shooting. You can see in the pictures that water barrels had been set up. I would think the bar girls did that, not the farang. I also believe the farang were probably encouraged by the bar girls. Either way, how would you like to have been an unsuspecting farang on a baht bus finding himself, his camera, mobile phone, passport, and God-knows-what-else soaked by some morons at a bar when those kinds of water squirting incidents were not supposed to start yet?

 

I think I've made it clear that I love Songkran and all that goes with it, but if I had been a victim of that soaking on that particular day, I too would have been furious. I hope if those people had any of their valuables destroyed, the police made those responsible pay for the damage.

 

I also think that everybody knows to expect the water works to escalate starting now, so now is the time to start protecting your valuables. Between now and the end of the day on the 19th, you're considered fair game.

[Gaybutton]

Splashing activities are escalating as predicted, primarily along Beach Road in the city and along Thappraya Road, toward Jomtien Beach, especially once you reach the Thepprasit Road intersection. From there on, it's bumper-to-bumper traffic with plenty of pickup trucks filled with water barrels and teens splashing everyone in sight.

 

Other than that, all I have seen anywhere else are small groups of young children who are for the most part benign. They're lucky to be able to hurl water more than 3 or 4 feet, so they really are not much of a factor.

 

However, for the rest of the week you might as well expect to be splashed sooner or later, so it is a good idea to make sure you protect your valuables and start asking baht bus drivers to let you sit up front with them.

 

Of course, with the temperatures and humidity as high as they are now, a little water splashing might well be a welcome relief.