The Floating House
Sangklaburi, 2013-04-08 12:00 by Laerke
Our wonderful friends Savija and Jacob got the amazing idea of inviting a bunch of friends on a 4-day Songkran trip to “the float house” owned by Savija’s family.
The float house is pretty much a house built on a giant raft that floats on the lake in Sangklaburi – pretty ingenious! We all gather early on the first morning and pile into the two minivans Savija has arranged for us – Savija is pretty much a planning goddess. It is a long trip to Sangklaburi but we manage to entertain ourselves with car games most of the way. In the beginning of the trip the scenery is relatively uninteresting but once we leave Kanchanaburi and head toward Sangklaburi – a road running parallel with the Burmese border the scenery really starts to impress, as we head up into the mountain and the lush forest along the road is green and the air is fresh. It is good to get out of the city!
We finally arrive just after sunset and boarded the float house, we are shown to our rooms – there was a big comfy double bed and a wonderful view out of big windows on two sides of the room, just perfect! The float house is named Wijittra, and it is beautifully built in natural materials – we instantly felt at home and very super excited to be here for the next 4 days!


The float house is equipped with a bunch of inner tubes for floating around in, 2 kayaks and Savija – the planning goddess – had rented a couple of Stand Up Paddle Boards for us too. All of this combined with a cooler full of drinks meant endless hours of entertainment!


After having celebrated Songkran in Bangkok twice we were quite happy getting out of Bangkok and the ensuing Songkran madness this year! The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water upon others. Thais roam the streets with containers of water or water guns. In addition, many Thais will have small bowls of beige colored talc sold cheaply and mixed with water which is then smeared on the faces and bodies of random passerbys as a blessing for the New Year.
The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddhas for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder. Among young people the holiday evolved to include dousing strangers with water to relieve the heat, since April is the hottest month in Thailand (temperatures can rise to over 100°F or 40°C on some days). This has further evolved into water fights and splashing water over people riding in vehicles.

Nowadays, the emphasis is on fun and water-throwing rather than on the festival's spiritual and religious aspects, which sometimes prompts complaints from traditionalists. In recent years there have been calls to moderate the festival to lessen the many alcohol-related road accidents as well as injuries attributed to extreme behavior such as water being thrown in the faces of traveling motorcyclists.

We experienced a lovely blend of the traditional way and the new way of celebrating Songkran. We participated in a buddhist ceremony where 9 monks chanted and we offered rice to the monks, and the monks and the elders of the village had their hands doused with water - all very respectful. One of the women approached me and wished me a happy new year by pouring water from a golden bowl down by back – this is was done in a very respectful manner, and as the water is meant as a symbol of washing all of the bad away really you can only appreciate it :) She had added fragrant herbs and flowers to the water so it left me smelling wonderful!


Then the kids came out with bright plastic water guns and somebody cranked up the stereo in his pick-up and everybody danced to Thai hits - and of course Gangnam Style!! The Thais really know how to have fun :)


One of the days we sailed into the mainland and walked through Sangklaburi town, I didn’t bring my camera with me as we feared we would be mobbed by happy water throwing people. I did feel a little sad that I missed out on many great photo op’s (I really have got to get a waterproof camera!) instead I wholeheartedly threw myself into the waterfights! Sangklaburi’s water fights were pretty low-key compared to Bangkok’s but we had great fun playing with the local kids and we got absoulutely soaked! One kid had put red food-colour in the water of her gun, luckily the red colour easily came off again – both Martin and my sister were wearing white t-shirts.
I have a few photos of Sangklaburi town from a earlier visit: Roadtrip Kanchanaburi to Sangklaburi
Another day we went on a little trip to an island in the lake where there was a coconut plantage, here we saw a big monkey pry coconuts of the tree and letting them fall to the ground with louds thumps, we saw them shell some coconuts and then we ate some coconut – a very chilled visit :)








The majority of the time was spent playing in the water though, we did some lovely little kayak trips and we all mastered the stand up paddle boards. The lake water was so nice, it was super warm and it was great to be able to swim without getting all salty. We had all our meals aboard – and they were delicious! A couple of sweet Thai (and a Burmese) are employed from the village where we joined in the Songkran celebration, they did a fantastic job cooking up some scumptious meals for us!




Sunset – and sunrise (yup, we were up for a sunrise or two) time on the float house were magical! All in all the whole trip was, I took so many photo I loved (why this post is pretty photo heavy!), we had fun nights drinking, fantastic times just relaxing and the scenery on the lake was just so beautiful!




If you ever get the chance – go on a trip to Khao Laem Lake and stay on a float house – you won’t regret it! This is the website for my friend’s family’s float house that we went with: http://www.lakesafarithailand.com/floathouse-wijittra-company-profile highly recommended!