No powder, liquor consumption around Khao San during Songkran

BANGKOK, April 12 (TNA) - As people, including international tourists, began splashing water at each other on Friday to celebrate the Songkran or the traditional Thai New Year festival on Khao San Road, known as Bangkok’s backpacker haven, organisers of the festival in the area have announced that powder and liquor consumption are strictly forbidden. The organisers have also offered a reward of 10,000 baht for those who report sexual harassment and pick-pocketing during the celebration of the ongoing Songkran festival, while young girls and transvestites are not allowed to wear dresses which could arouse sex appeal in the area. Traders in the area have begun installing desks selling water machine guns, food and soft drinks along Khao San Road. They are also decorating the area to welcome Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali, who is scheduled to preside over the opening of the festival in the area Friday evening. A number of festivities are organised during the presence of HRH Princess Soamsawali, including traditional Thai music and dance to honour Their Majesties King and Queen, an international Songkran beauty contest, a symbolic of the road during the festival in the past, with 20 beauties participating in the event. Other extravagant show will be a display of Thai rural arts and culture, ahead of the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. Camera surveillances have also been installed along Khao San Road and about 400 police and volunteers have been deployed during the Songkran festival to ensure security for revelers. Piyabutr Jivaramonaikul, President of Khao San Road Traders Association, told reporters that the number of tourists checked in at hotels and guesthouses around the area during the Songkran festival this year has risen by 10-30 per cent, compared to the same period last year, and around 300-400 million baht is expected to change hands. Songkran celebrations have also kicked off in other areas nationwide, with the northern resort Chiang Mai Province and Hat Yai in Songkhla Province in the Thai South have drawn a large number of international tourists as those seen in previous years. In Hat Yai, the local public and private tourism agencies have jointly organised a four-day celebration, called Hat Yai Midnight Songkran Festival, starting from April 11, attracting locals and foreign tourists, most of them Malaysians and Singaporeans. A carnival parade will be held Friday evening expected to receive high enthusiasm from the tourists. Lampang's central prison in Thai North, in the meantime, organised an alms giving ceremony on Friday morning, to give inmates a chance to do merit makings and to receive blessings for the traditional Thai New Year. The inmates later listened to Buddhist sermons, which teach everyone the path to lead a good life, as well as to always do good deeds. Meanwhile, the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) said this year remains a golden year for the Thai tourism, as the number of international visitors to the Kingdom has steadily increased since the first quarter, noting if the growing trend continues until the end of this year, the Thai kingdom will see an expansion of international tourist arrivals by 15-20 per cent year-on-yar at the end of 2013. (TNA)