Whether you made it back in one piece or never even left, we’re just happy you’re here. But is this really a post-Songkran weekend or is it just the beginning of the end of Songkran? This year’s lunar calendar has us all confused, with half the office gone one week, another half the next, and a third half that just went AWOL ever since temperatures exceeded 40-degrees Celsius. In fact, there should be a word for tongsia that lasts all summer, particularly in the morning, particularly after gigs and bar openings: Songsia or Tongkran perhaps.
Of course, we blame this on Yingluck (along with traffic, losing lottery tickets and the Korean War). Why are Songkran holidays always announced so late? Does the Thai New Year always catch our government by surprise? Are they hoping Songkran will just up move to Singapore one day, where it will be slightly tweaked for safety reasons by completely banning water from the festivities? Yingluck, could you please announce next year’s Songkran holidays now so we can start feeling bad about not yet having booked our Songkran 2014 flights for even longer.
In any case, this should make for a quiet weekend, 48 blissful hours where you can pretend this is a civilized city, as you ride marginally less encumbered BTS trains, whiz down less grid-locked avenues and stroll down sidewalks that don’t feel like packed dance floors. Plus, you can officially drink again, which means that while your Uniqlo socks and Never Say Cutz hairdo are now dry, you don’t have to be. (Or at least you can stop fooling the men in brown by drinking pure vodka from bottles of Minere.)
On Sunday night, you’ll even get to bask in the schadenfreude as your friends, stuck in the massive traffic jam from Hua Hin, start posting about their misery on Facebook. But next week, it’ll be back to the grind for us all, toiling endlessly under the crushing yoke of—oh wait, May 1 is Labor Day, May 6 is restitution for Coronation Day and May 24 is Visakha Bucha Day. Well, now we know what to do when we get back to our desks, start planning for three three-day getaways in a row.
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