Songkran 2014, Part 2

Later on Sunday evening, after our daytime Songkran playing, we headed back out into the fray.  This time we grabbed a tuk tuk to the Silom area, one of the biggest Songkran waterfight areas in Bangkok.  

The scene at Silom is a bit hard to describe and my video doesn't really help elucidate much, but here's an attempt: pure craziness.  People, water, wet chalk: everywhere.  Absolutely everywhere.  Blocks and blocks of wet, soggy, chalky people spread across a 6 lane road, all having fun, dancing, cheering, smooshing wet chalk on each others faces, squirting each other with water guns, pouring cups/buckets/whathaveyou of water on each other (that water ranged from creepily warm to searingly ice cold).  So much fun!

Here's our arrival on one of Silom's side streets... a few sprays of water and chalky faces here and there at first, followed by the overwhelming sight of all those people on the main drag:

Here's what I mean about people smooshing chalk on each others faces... people bought little bags of chalk pellets along with a small bucket, mixed the pellets with water and then walked around (or stood still as others passed by) and gently touched the faces of the other people, usually saying "Happy New Year" or "Happy Songkran." I read somewhere that the chalk custom is derived from the chalk blessings that monks put on houses, shop windows, and the ceilings of taxis.

Anywho, here's the chalk application... we think a lot of dudes were targeting this girl in front of us because she was cute:

Here are some shots of Tim and Mr. Ben, all chalked up:

And a video selfie:

After all of that chalking, everything was covered in a slick wet paste of sorts... motorbikes, people, the ground...

More craziness, including firehoses, strange guys on motorcycles popping wheelies and getting cheers from the crowd...

There were some characters out that night, including big fat guy dressed up like a baby as well as a two person, baton-throwing parade making its way through the alleys:

And, finally, a stroll down Patpong alley, one of Bangkok's girly bar/red light districts.  It was pretty much just Songkran shenanigans, there, too, as opposed to the type of shenanigans that normal happen in that area.  Also: you can catch a glimpse of Mr. Ben filling up his water gun resevoir at a very sketchy barrel partially full of water of unknown origins.  Gross. 

Songkran 2014, Part 1

First off, a Songkran greeting: 

Second, Songkran selfies:

Thirdly, our experience during the day on Sunday at the designated waterfight area in front of one of Bangkok's big malls, Central World.  Craziness!

We had a lot of fun getting soaked and soaking others at this Songkran party (see below), but compared to the shenanigans later in the evening, this was quite tame.  No chalk, no booze... just water and fun!

We definitely had fun later in the evening, too, at one of the other major Songkran sites closer to home, Silom, but I am having trouble getting my video to upload.  Consider it coming soon(ish)!

Gearing Up for Songkran 2014!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled recap of our Cambodia trip to bring you a special report from Bangkok on Songkran 2014 preparations!

Songkran is Thailand biggest festival, celebrating the traditional Thai new year.  The holiday falls in April each year, which is the hottest time of the year in Thailand.  Many people celebrate Songkran by going to the temple, making offerings, cleaning their houses and shrines and making new years resolutions.  

The most fun part of Songkran, though, is that Thailand basically turns into a country-wide water fight for 3 days.  I mean, if you leave the house during the festival, it is guaranteed that you will be squirted, splashed, doused in a bucket full of water, and probably have your face smeared with talcum powder! It's all very good-natured and fun. 

Here's a pretty hilarious video of the folks as the U.S.Embassy in Bangkok, including the ambassador, wishing Thailand a happy Songkran:

Today, Saturday, is sort of the soft opening of Songkran, so when Tim and I walked to the grocery store to stock up on food as most restaurants and shops close, we went prepared to get wet, putting our wallets and cell phones in ziplocks.  However, other than the grocery store clerks wearing Hawaiian shirts (an inexplicable Songkran tradition), we didn't see much action.  But we did stock up:

Ben and Tim are taking the motorbike out to do some reconnaissance, though, checking out the Songkran hotspots.  They're going prepared, Ben in his aloha shirt and Tim riding in the back with the weaponry:

This report will be updated in the near future once the festival is in full swing!

Survivors

This weekend is Eid Al-Adha (or Idul Adha here in Indonesia), the Feast of the Sacrifice, an important Muslim holiday to honor the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his young first-born son Ishmael (before God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead).  Celebrations are also connected to the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

In practice, during this holiday, animals are sacrificed and their meat is split into 3 parts, one third for the family to eat, one third for extended family and friends and one third for the poor and needy.  The animal is typically a cow, I understand, but most of what I have seen for sale here for the holiday is goat.  Goat markets pop up everywhere- tied up a long fences, at intersections, in random fields...  Wikipedia tells me that during the 2 days of Eid Al-Adha each year, over 100 million animals are killed as part of the celebrations.

I caught a photo of these goats this afternoon in a lot near our grocery store, reveling in the fact that they were not sold for sacrifice over the holiday weekend.  I imagine them singing, to the tune of Destiny's Child's song, Survivor, "I'm a survivor, I'm gonna eat grass, not getting slaughtered, gonna eat more grass!"

Selamat Idul Fitri

Celebrating the end of the month of Ramadan fasting last night, the night before Idul Fitri, hundreds (thousands?) of muezzin at mosques across Jakarta simultaneously chanted via loudspeaker while fireworks exploded out of seemingly every street or alley in the city and drums pounded constantly...

 

The din was pretty amazing... while the city was pretty ghost-towny during the day, it was bumpin' at night for sure, despite the fact that 7 million people vacated the city this week.

Merah Putih

Bumping right up against the end of Ramadan and the week of Lebaran this year, this Friday, August 17th is Indonesia's Independence Day (called, in long form "Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Indonesia" ("Proclamation of Indonesian Independence"), or "Tujuh Belasan" ("the 17th") or just plain "Proklamasi" for short). 

It's a pretty important holiday here, not dissimilar from July 4th.  Lots of celebration, food, and apparently, silly games.  People here started prepping at the beginning of the month- suddenly every street corner was festooned with flags and bunting in merah putih (red and white), the colors of the Indonesian flag:

Trinket sellers roamed the streets and slipped between cars at traffic lights selling mini Indonesian flags and little woven decorative ketupat made from Indonesian flag ribbons:

  Lots of signs posted everywhere proclaiming "Long live the freedom of the Republic of Indonesia":

I learned from some knowledgeable Indonesian sources that normally Tujuh Belasan is full of fun games and contests organized by neighborhood committees, many of which are counterparts to games we play in the U.S., while others are pretty foreign to us: rice sack races are the equivalent of the American potato sack race and rice crackers hanging from a string are not dissimilar from bobbing for apples, but I'm not sure we have anything like the prizes perched on top of a greased palm tree trunk.  My source also mentioned something about squeezing live eels into a jar?  The details were hazy.  I read something about dangdut football (soccer played by dudes in sarongs, set to dangdut music).  

Sadly, after having my appetite whetted by the descriptions of these games and celebrations, because of this year's overlap between Ramadan and Tujuh Belasan, celebrations in Jakarta are expected to be much more sedate this year since folks are a) fasting and/or b) sudah pulang kampung (already heading home to the village for Lebaran).  Tim and I walked around a bit and some some small celebrations, but things were feeling pretty ghost-townish around here... however, we did see the mini-motorbike parade above, and then, while wandering around deserted Gelora Bung Karno stadium (where we watched the crazy soccer games so many months ago), we had the privilege of catching some dudes sitting on their motorbikes while singing Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" in 4 part harmony, plus 3 other dudes practicing some Cocktail-esque "flair bartending" moves with empty booze bottles and cocktail shakers.  I don't think these were Independence Day related activities, but amusing nonetheless.

Ramadan Ramblings

This being my pertama kali in a majority Muslim country for the month of Ramadan, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the happenings, traditions and oddities that I've observed so far.  I got some helpful explanations of the things I observed here and here, if you're interested.  This post is pretty word heavy and photo light right now, but I'll try to capture some more photos and update the post!

Timing: Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting that occurs during the 9th month of the Islamic calendar... the dates of Ramadan vary from year to year, based on the lunar calendar.  This reliance on visual sitings of the crescent moon occasionally leads to some confusion, disagreement and debate concerning when the holy month actually begins and when folks are supposed to commence fasting.  This year, the Indonesian government stated that Ramadan began on Saturday, July 21, but the many Muslim organizations argued that it began on Friday, July 20.  Tim said that some people in his office began their fasting on the 20th, just to be safe.

Fasting: During Ramadan, between sunrise and sunset each day, pretty much all Muslims abstain from not only eating and drinking, but also from smoking cigarettes (which is difficult for most Indonesians, many of whom are kretek fiends), sexual relations and bad language.  There are some exceptions to the fasting rule, however, for kids, pregnant or menstruating women, the sick, elderly, or those traveling.  Apparently, being an Olympic athlete is an exception to the fasting rule, too.   My understanding is that the first few days of fasting are particularly rough, but that it gets easier throughout the month as your body gets acclimated.  I might give it a try for a couple days out of curiosity and solidarity.

In practice, in Jakarta at least, this means that people get up very early in order to pray and eat before sunrise (which is around 6 am) and then leave work early (around 3 or 3:30 pm) in order to make it home in time to pray and breakfast at sunset (around 6 pm).  I've heard stories of cab drivers pulling over, passenger or not, at sunset to light up a cigarette and take a sip of water.  Also, lima kaki (push carts selling food- literally "five legs") all come out in droves in the mid-to-late afternoon in order to accommodate hordes of hungry people, and many restaurants have special buffets or prix-fixe menus for Ramadan fast breaking purposes.  Most offices shift or shorten work hours to allow Muslim workers to leave early and rush hour is thus pushed up by two hours.

Lunch, on the other hand, is a different affair.  Many restaurants are closed for lunch, and those that are open, in order to be respectful of those fasting, put up curtains to hide their dining areas from sight (see photo of the curtains that Starbucks put up).  Also, restaurants run by non-Muslims seem to be particularly crowded during this time (like the babi (pork) place we went for lunch today- standing room only!).

Generally, things seem to move on a slower timetable, as people are a little sluggish from dehydration and hunger.  I've seen lots of people napping- on highway overpasses, in parking garages, on the side of the road.  Additionally, normally scheduled events are unexpectedly cancelled (the weekly music in Taman Suropati, which Tim and I tried to check out last weekend) or sparsely attended (Car Free Day was also a lonely event last Sunday... I can't imagine leisure biking in high heat is high on the list during the Ramadan fast).

Vices: During Ramadan, there are regional regulations concerning certain vices, such as alcohol sales, "nightlife venues" and "massage parlors." While I can't speak to the effect these regulations have on "nightlife" or "massages," I can say that the rules concerning alcohol sales seem to be somewhat unclear and also inconsistently followed and/or enforced... it sounds like some combination of police and hardline Islamic organizations raid certain venues throughout the month to enforce the laws.

• It seems that most bars and liquor stores closed during the first few days of Ramadan.  Tim and I tried to grab a drink the Thursday night before Ramadan started and at least 2 bars in our neighborhood that we tried were already closed for the weekend, scheduled to reopen the following Monday.  I have heard that most of them also close during the last few days of Ramadan, too.  Below is a photo of our neighborhood beer garden- they literally shrouded the sign for the month of Ramadan:

• Most restaurants that normally serve alcohol removed all of their alcohol from sight, tucking under the bar rather than displaying it on the wall behind the bar... that area now houses elaborate displays of bottled water or flavored syrups.  
• Some restaurants will serve alcohol openly and notoriously (ha, thanks law school), some will serve it only incognito (see beer served in opaque copper mug, below), and others will only serve it after certain hours (our best guess is that the inspectors have stopped working at that point?). 

Shopping: Ramadan and Lebaran (see below) both seem to be a time of shopping, gifting and charity.  There is a government-mandated bonus that every salaried worker receives during Ramadan (or before Christmas if you're Christian)- the equivalent of one month's pay.  Also, many people give each other gifts right before Lebaran and many give to charity, also.  Because of this, many stores are all decked out and host major sales and specials leading up to and throughout Ramadan.  There are all sorts special items for sale- gift baskets (see photo of random "Ramadhan Hampers" at Ace Hardware below), freshly made sweets for breaking fast, imported dates (a traditional way to break the fast) and special Muslim clothing including baju koko (embroidered shirts for men) and kebaya kurung (intricately detailed blouses and long skirts for women).

 

I also understand that, as a result of all of the shopping and celebratory break-fast dinners, food prices jump up in Indonesia each year during Ramadan (even more so this year because the U.S. drought has affected the price and availability of Indonesia's soybean imports, which in turn affects tofu and tempeh prices, which causes tofu and tempeh sellers to strike and the tofu and tempeh cartel to rear its ugly head.)

Idul Fitri/Lebaran: The end of Ramadan is followed by the Idul Fitri (also called Lebaran) festivities.  Apparently, at this time, there is a mass exodus from Jakarta by over 7 million people who pulang kampung (go home to the village) to visit family and celebrate.  My understanding is that Jakarta becomes a ghost town for about a week and that Indonesia's transportation infrastructure groans under the stress of all of these people simultaneously fleeing the city for greener pastures (not to mention ticket prices for flights, trains and buses all go up exponentially).  I'll let you know what it's like, as Tim and I will be sticking around town that week. We've heard its a great time for biking.