2018 Songkran Festival: A Lean Time in Bangkok

Songkran Festival (สงกรานต์) between 13-15 April celebrated the traditional Thai new year. For this year, I would like to describe how Bangkokian trainers actually spent time on this long holiday from 12 to 16 April 2018.

Before Songkran, the government announced the rules for the festival, namely (1) proper dress, (2) no alcohol, (3) water only, no ice, foam or powder, (4) no high-pressure water gun, (5) no indecent behavior or dance, (6) the traditionally conformed extra activities, (7) specific time for water fight and (8) no sitting in the cargo bed of pickup trucks when traveling in main roads, and (9) no water splashing on the road as it might cause traffic accidents. I personally agreed with the rules on safety to keep the rambunctiousness in check. In reality, these rules were not universally observed.

With the boisterous mood, Songkran was the most dangerous time of the year. The dedicated Songkran Traffic Accident Prevention Center announced that during the Seven Deadly Days between 11-17 April 2018, there were 3,728 traffic accidents, resulting in 418 deaths and 3,897 injured. The leading causes of accidents were drunk driving and speeding. Accidents occurred most often between 4 to 8 pm and more than 80% involved motorcycles.

For people who moved from provinces to Bangkok for study or job, it was the time to visit family and friends back home. Others chose for travel trips abroad or to other provinces. This caused the largest annual migration in Thailand. Airports and bus terminals were choked full. The hotels, plane tickets and bus tickets had better be booked in advance. On the bright side, it was the best time to drive in Bangkok due to the absence of the usual notorious traffic jam.

Naturally, most Bangkokians could not travel. For the fun-loving guys, there were water fights. The organized official events were usually in the city center and well-organized with some rule enforcement. In the local community, impromptu ones could be quite, well, unorganized. Anybody who ventured out on foot during the hot afternoon would get wet. Hence, some people actually chose to hole up. I was of this second group and prepared for the festival by stocking up food, drinks, ice cream, books, and Pokeballs to catch strays.

For Pokemon trainers' circles, the Facebook and social media were generally flooded with screenshots of region or weather specific monsters from those who traveled abroad; the snowy castforms were particularly popular. On the other hand, some posted screenshots of desolated lands that were totally devoid of the Pokemon Go activities.

For those who stayed in Bangkok, the gaming was generally not fruitful. It was not safe to venture out hunting Pokemon on foot with mobile phones that were not water-resistance. It was also particularly challenging to form teams for legionary raids as usual members would either be away, joining the festival near home or chose not to come.

Personally, I stayed at home from late morning to early evening to avoid getting wet. As a night owl, I slept late and missed the early morning opportunities to go hunting Pokemon and attacking gyms. The raids were merely out of questions. In short, I missed all the daily field research stamps and raids but managed to catch some stray Mareeps on the Community Day on 15 April. On the 16 April, however, the Pokemon Go scene came back to normal. More trainers turned up for raids than usual. I had double legendary raids in the afternoon and early evening, capturing two Latias in total.

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Listed in the Being Thai page.