Gatherings and Tortoises

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Monday night. Ben is otherwise incapacitated with a killer migraine, so I stepped out the front door to spend an evening catching up with the world at the café. So absorbed was my gaze by the immensely bright and near full moon, I almost stood on a tortoise. I picked up the snooping shelled little reptile and brought him inside, thinking he’ll make an easy pet for volunteers to come. I left him helplessly sliding about the sink whilst I dashed round the house looking for a suitable box shaped home. He did not appreciate being taken indoors. In protest, he started firing turds at an alarming rate over his new house and mine. I took the hint and placed him outside to finish his evening stroll, undisturbed.

Feeling a lot better, Ben joined me once again in the back of Bra Yung’s pickup truck to wish a newly married couple happiness on their wedding day. Next to the better dressed migrant workers, in our suit jackets we were the smartest dressed on the open aired motorway. The bride was beautifully dressed in shimmering silk and tall heels, making the groom at least a foot shorter than his partner. The reception was outside a semi-stilted house, with a scattering of white clothed tables around a fairy-lighted stage. We sat and ate course after course of sumptuous food, drank red label (illness turning Ben into a 3 glass lightweight), and watched smiling girls dance elegantly to soft Isaan folk music. However, teaching and severe headaches take their toll and so, through our 5^th course of fish and banana leaf wrapped rice; we left everyone to a night of drunken karaoke and revelry.

The following night, Loi Krathong was upon us. The festival gives thanks to the river goddess by floating krathong’s (home-made lotus flowers) across the waterways of Thailand. Below the rising full moon, we worked on our own Krathongs. With tongues sticking out in concentration, we pinned folded banana leafs around a small banana tree tunk and inserted incence sticks and a candle amongst our vivid floral arrangements. Bra Yung told us that the Krathong symbolises your love and if it floats freely you will find a long lasting love in life. You can understand our concern when, in the trail run, mine sank in the water and Ben’s tilted like the titanic!

Our Krathongs freshly lightened, we set off with Bra Yung, Pi Ying and her 6yearold niece Moo-moo to Ubon. The streets were packed as we neared the Mun River. I heard fireworks ricochet across the river and looked up to a sky burning brightly with hundreds of flickering lanterns drifting into a clear night. We weaved our way through people readying Krathongs and lanterns, towards the river bank. An aroma of exploded firecrackers hung in the air making it feel like New Year without the double vision. Whilst we entrusted ours to a man seated in a longboat that would set them adrift further out, Ben reached into the shallows and grabbed another tortoise. It was bigger than the last and looked equally displeased with being hoisted high out of his feeding ground. We toyed with the idea of bringing it home, but returned it, keen not to make the same mistake twice! We held our red and blue lantern till it could hold its own weight and fly amongst the masses crossing the slivery moon.

I walked along the front past families chaotically setting off several lanterns at once. Couples stood together, their arms entwined as they silently watched their love float through water and light drift across the stars. Children splashed into the water to plunder nearby Krathongs for coins given as merit. I couldn’t help thinking Ben and I should have joined them, putting it towards our summer savings.

For many it will have been their 8^th, 20^th, perhaps their 50^th Loi Krathong. Yet for us, it marks our first Thai festival and will certainly not be the last.

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