Thailand - Friday April 13, 2007

The Songkran, Thai New Year (festival) officially begins today. It is holiday time and most of the shopping places are partly closed. Other problem I am facing is that Thai restaurant, where I used to dine, will be closed till 17th. Thus next 4-5 days are not good for purchase, wherever we go about 40-50 percent of the shops are closed.

Songkran started with the death of 41 and another 514 got injured in road accidents. Mainly coz of drunken driving. Police are a lil more alert during this period. There are so many check points for vehicles. The first day itself, police checked about two million vehicles in Thailand and 33,719 people got booked (no drivers license or helmet or seat belt …such petty things).

The main ‘happening’ during Songkran is spraying water. If you go out, you will get wet for sure. In every street people will be waiting with water guns, buckets, hose etc. and they will pour water. Some others travel in open vehicles fully equipped. They will ‘attack’ the people on the street with their water gun. They use some powder too. Tourists also participate in this action, mainly in Khao San Road. Authorities advised women tourists, well in advance, to not to wear cloths which are ‘not suitable’ during these days, to avoid misuse.

Chiang Mai is one of the major tourist attractions during this period and they are expecting revenue of about Bt100 million during these period.

There is other side of the story too, which are ‘unheard’ by many. Northern provinces of Thailand are facing draught conditions. But During Songkran period billions of litres of water is used (wasted?) and many activists are raising this issue in vain.

Today I visited the ‘Siam Ocean World’, an aquarium. It is just amazing. Three things attracted me the most:

Giant Spider Crab
Walking ‘through the water’ and getting a ‘feel’ of the Ray and Sharks going above our head.
Penguin

It was my long cherished dream to see a penguin and I never expected one here till I saw it. It was a big surprise, though the penguins were small.

This place is worth a visit, when you visit Bangkok, if you have not seen such things. This is South Asia’s biggest Aquarium. There are different shows at different timings like feeding the Penguin, feeding the fish by an underwater diver etc.

This building also includes Siam Paragon a shopping mall which is mainly for elite class and here we can get the idea that for quality things, even in Bangkok, one need to ‘pay’.

This was the first time I used train for transport, in Bangkok. From my place (Petchburi Station), we have to take the subway train and then catch the Sky Train which is like a ‘flyover train’, to reach Siam. This is a planned construction so that one can directly enter into the Paragon building from the station.

I liked the overall train experience. I better don’t compare it with Indian Railways to avoid an embarrassment. From what my wife told, its just like trains in Germany and France (she had been there and wasn’t a ‘Google’ act).

There is one seat (per compartment it seems) reserved for monks in the Sky Train. Of course we can use it if there isn’t any monk.

The Indian restaurant too was closed and thus our lunch and dinner ended up in bread and jam. One additional meal we enjoyed during the day is a burger from Burger King, at Siam. They do have Veg Burgers.