Celebrate New Year's Eve Three Times over, in Bangkok
Bangkok keeps the celebrations rolling, with New Years festivities spanning from January to April.
Bangkok loves a good New Year’s party, with its streets exploding with festivities not once, not twice, but three times every year. First is the one based on the 'solar' Gregorian calendar, then the lunar Chinese New Year, and finally the uniquely Thai celebration of Songkran. Thankfully they all happen on different dates, so you won't miss out on any of the fun.
One of the biggest and most popular New Years' eve parties is held at the Asiatique open-air mall of Chao Phraya Riverbank. This is the Thai equivalent of the Times Square countdown, with live music and celebrity performances. Not to be outdone, other shopping malls around the city, such as IconSiam and CentralWorld, become the center points for huge street parties.
To witness the city explode with fireworks from above, try Bangkok’s wealth of rooftop bars: Cloud 47, Three Sixty, and Vertigo at the Banyan Tree Bangkok Hotel are all good places to start.
With a Sino-Thai population of 7 million, the Chinese New Year is a major event in Thailand. In the days leading up to the celebration, people wear red clothes and decorate their homes with red paper lanterns, calligraphy banners, and trays of red and orange fruit. Then, Yaowaraj, the Chinatown of Bangkok, turns into a cacophony of firecrackers and crowds in red; major roads are closed off, and the holy sites like Lengnoeiyi temple and Mang Nguan Ha shrine are flooded with people paying respect to their ancestors.
The traditional Thai New Year is the biggest celebration of all, a three-day affair during the hottest time of the year in Thailand. This is when a massive water fight breaks out, with the water believed to cleanse away the past and bring luck, prosperity, and health for the coming year.
The closed-off Silom Road turns into an impressive water fighting zone as throngs of people roam, armed with water guns, occupying the skywalk and footbridges to take aim at each other.
Khao San Road, Bangkok’s backpacker hotspot, is another place where you better not venture without a waterproof pouch for your valuables, as snipers with super-soakers are ready to ambush you at every corner.
Let us know and we'll arrange everything – all you'll need to do is pack your waterproofs.
Jurriaan Teulings
Jurriaan dreamt of becoming an astronomer or a circus clown, then got a law degree before settling on travel writing and photography. He spent two decades spreading the word of Dutch stroopwafels across 100 countries, picking up awards of plexiglass, bronze, and beads along the way. Recently, he planted the first rainbow flag on the North Pole. Next stop: Antarctica.
All images sourced from Shutterstock