Songkran officially starts tomorrow, which means it really started on Friday evening or even a little earlier to beat the traffic. There really is nothing like Thailand’s unique new year water festival, so long as you discount coincidentally similar events and traditions in places like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. It’s a chance to let off steam in the hottest month of the year by brushing up against a thousand clammy, clay-covered bodies in Silom Road and stumbling from beer station to beer station in hope of a cold can.
People walk around at the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 19, 2014, in Indio, California.
The old men running the country would have us believe the festival is all about returning to the ancestral home to pour water on the hands of the elders or Buddha statues, but in many places the reality is quite different.
Hoses are set up to ambush motorists and stray pedestrians at suburban intersections, marauding squadrons of teenagers take deadly accurate aim with powerful water weapons from the back of pickups, and you never know when someone’s sneaking up on you with a cup of ice water to pour down your back.
There certainly is fun to be had, so long as you wear expendable clothing and leave your smartphone, credit cards and any money you can’t afford to have stolen at home. If you manage to keep the thieves at bay and powder out of your eyes, you can enjoy yourself.
Still, there is no denying Songkran can be a bit of a chore if you want to go about your business unsaturated. After a few days of getting unexpected showers, the novelty wears thin.
But what is the alternative, other than hiding inside trying to remember what cold feels like by watching episodes of Fargo? Even events that have nothing to do with Songkran mean going outside and running the risk of getting drenched.
Being out of the country is safest, which is why an estimated 500,000 Thais are taking advantage of visa waivers and heading to Japan this week. But a trip to the Land of the Rising Sun could mean encountering fans imitating the cast of Hormones dancing wildly on a train, or other behaviour that could embarrass the Land of Smiles.
With that in mind, Brunch presents six alternative adventures for those who want to get out of Dodge. It may be too late to organise much more than a trip to Myanmar for Thingyan — which is nothing like Songkran — or a sojourn to Singapore, but it’s not too early to start planning next year’s escape.
The lunar eclipse is visible over the Marina Bay Sands hotel integrated resort in Singapore, 04 April 2015. The phenomenon known as the 'Blood Moon', where the moon turns red before the eclipse was not visible due to overcast weather over the island.
Big names in the culinary world converge on Singapore to demonstrate their dishes and discuss the future of gastronomy
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu --- Land Diver on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu --- Image by © Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis
Reykjavik, Iceland
Puffin watching You can’t go much further out of your way to beat the heat than Iceland, even though April is the month temperatures start to rise in the northern Atlantic. Some days it reaches 10C.
The middle of the month is when puffin watching season starts in earnest. On Heimael, Lundey and Akurey islands, millions of puffins return to their nests to lay eggs, and several companies offer daily tours to see the spectacle. But it’s not only bird-watchers who can get a thrill out of the country — the scenery is spectacular. If Europe’s largest bird cliff, 14km long and 440m high, doesn’t take your fancy, there are day trips to glaciers, whale watching and the famous Aurora Borealis.
GETTING THERE: Return flights to Reykjavikstart from about 60,000 baht with a layover in Oslo.
