THAILAND’S WATER FESTIVAL
‘The monks’ bowls overflow with
lotus parcels packed with sticky r ice’
Families wander through the bamboo glades
and knobbly fruited kaffir lime trees, and
into each other’s open-sided teak houses,
offering baskets of kanom tian – little
pyramids of tapioca and coconut wrapped
in banana leaves – to elderly relatives,
teachers and respected shamans.
Rural Songkran is a largely dry affair,
though Aoi Silphisuth, who runs a
homestay cookery school in the village,
points out the tin troughs that stand in wait
by some thresholds. ‘Just in case, you know,
for defence.’ Her family will go into Chiang
Mai for an evening squirt, though her son
is well aware that their armoury – a kid’s
bucket and a plastic bottle with a hole in the
lid – will see them mercilessly outgunned.
By early afternoon, it’s topped 40 ̊C back
in the Old City and a procession is wobbling
out of the heat haze down a long, straight
avenue. In Chiang Mai, 13 April is centred
around this spectacle, one that began at
A bodhi tree with mai
kam sticks, meant to
bring luck to those who
leave them. RIGHT Food is
a big part of the festival