Songkran in Chiang Mai, From Someone Who Has Lived Through Four
For three days the entire city turns into a water fight with 40,000 people who have all independently decided to soak strangers, and the only correct strategy is to stop trying to keep your phone dry.
Songkran is the Thai new year, from the 13th to the 15th of April, and the official version is gentle water blessing. The actual version in Chiang Mai is three days during which the population of the city, several hundred thousand people, collectively decides that water should be in everybody's face regardless of consent.
I have now lived through four of these and I have stopped pretending to dislike it, which took a while.
Last verified 30 September 2026.
The scale of it is the thing nobody warns you about
Chiang Mai's Songkran is not a small local event. It draws visitors from across the country and increasingly from Europe and Australia, and the total number of people in the old city over the three days runs to hundreds of thousands. On the 13th the war on Tha Phae Gate starts in the morning and by the afternoon the moat area around the gate is a solid mass of people with water blasters, buckets, and hoses.
What this means in practice is that you cannot avoid it. You cannot walk down a quiet lane and get peace. The back alleys have people in them. The temples have water fights at the gates. The only way to avoid Songkran in Chiang Mai is to not be in Chiang Mai.
What it is actually like
Water comes from three sources. Ice buckets held above head height, which is the traditional form and the most unpleasant because the temperature is genuinely freezing and it arrives without warning. Water blasters, which are pressurised, reach maybe ten metres, and are aimed deliberately. And hoses, at the edges, near the drain covers, run by people who have set up a position.
The 13th is the polite day. Locals mostly bless you, using a silver bowl and a soft brush, and the tourists with blasters are contained to certain streets. The 14th is the serious one and it is the day people plan around by leaving the city. The 15th is the clean-up day and the water is mostly ceremonial again.
The thing to understand about the 14th is that it is not dangerous in the way that might worry you. It is extremely wet, and you will lose electronics if you are careless, and somebody will get soap or something in your eyes. People get genuinely hurt every year, almost always by being shoved into a road, not by the water.
The temple rules, which are absolutely enforced
You may not bring water into a temple. No bottles, no water guns, no buckets. This is enforced at the gate by volunteers with a water-soluble marker or a bucket of dye, and the rule is absolute. If you have ever been stopped at a Thai temple entrance, this is why.
You may not be in a swimwear situation. For Songkrain this specifically, a soaked t-shirt and shorts are fine, a bikini is not, and being soaked through to the point where clothing is clinging is at the discretion of whoever is on the gate. Locals do not wear swimwear and they will look at you.
Temples close to visitors during the peak of the water fight. The inner sanctums at several major temples are closed off on the 13th and 14th for their own safety, which is a real loss if you came for the temples specifically. Go on the 12th or the 15th if you want to actually see them, and treat the festival as its own separate thing.
Strategy
Leave the city. This is the advice that locals give and it is correct. Doi Inthanon, Mae Kampong, the hill tribe areas, and the small towns around Chiang Mai all have their own Songkran, which is a much more local and considerably less intense version. You get the festival without the war zone.
Stay dry, accept you will not be dry, and do not bring anything you care about. Put your phone in a dry bag. Do not wear anything white, anything expensive, or anything you will be upset to see wet. Wear clothes that dry fast. There is no point in a rain jacket; the water goes straight through and you will be heavier for it.
Carry a small towel and a change of clothes if you have a reservation that evening. A good hotel will have a laundry service, and most will do it free for guests, so the practical move is to go back, shower, and hand over everything for a one-hour wash.
Decide whether to participate. You are permitted to not play. The tradition is to offer a bowl of water to someone and let them choose, and a person who declines is not going to be forced. But if you are going to be in the water anyway, the game is to give some back, and the people having the best time are unambiguously the ones being attacked rather than attacking.
If you are not there for Songkran
Come in the second week of April instead. The festival is over, the heat is starting, and the prices for everything drop by a third because the city empties out. You can see the temples properly, the water paintings are still up, and the flower offerings from the festival are still everywhere. It is a better holiday for almost everyone and the same flight costs less.
