By the time this note is published, Songkran will have just finished, but since we work ahead on the magazine, as I write this the Songkran holiday has yet to happen. And right now I'm looking forward to the prospect of being soaked in ice-cold water as I walk down the street.
As I'm sure most of our readers have noticed, it has been unbelievably hot in Thailand over the past few days. This morning, since the traffic was gridlocked, there were no taxis and I didn't want to risk my life on a motorcycle taxi, I had to undertake the 10-minute walk from my flat to the MRT station.
In normal circumstances, a 10-minute walk is nothing — even if in Bangkok you are constantly at risk on the footpath of being run over by a motorbike, falling down a bottomless hole or being decapitated by some sharp, rusty sheets of metal sticking out from somewhere. But in this kind of humid, oppressive heat, a short walk like that can be pretty gruelling.
Within seconds of my stroll to the station this morning, I was literally dripping with sweat and drained of energy. At that moment, I wished for nothing more than for some stranger to run up to me and douse me from head to toe with a nice cool bucket of water. In other words, I wished it was Songkran.
While I admit that that kind of Songkran experience can be pretty annoying at times, especially when it's combined with copious amounts of white powder, on days like this it seems that the only solution to deal with the heat is to be soaked in cold water. A beach or a swimming pool would be preferable of course, but when those options aren’t available, a bucket of water does the job just fine.
Thailand is facing some pretty serious drought and water shortages this year, so hopefully people don't go overboard with the water throwing. But if the weather is this hot during the Songkran break, I won't complain if some kid decides to throw water over my head as I walk down the street. Just go easy on the powder.
Ben Edwards
Editor
[email protected]
