Advertisement
Published: November 27th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Jonathan
random pic of Jonathan, tho he's disappeared now :( Hey all
Right, this weekend it was Lay Krathong festival or the Festival of Light. I'm not entirely sure of the origins, its to do with thanking the water and it takes place in the twelfth lunar month, on a full moon. Mam lek and her husband offered to take us to Sukhothai, which is around 300km away from us, as it is supposed to have the most spectacular celebrations.
The ride to Sukhothai was er slightly cramped and uncomfortable, but we made it in one place and were met by the daughter of one of mam lek's friends, Jeh: she was to be our guide for the evening as she was 'closer to our age' as mam lek put it! As this was Friday night it was not yet the climax opf the festival (Saturday), but we were still promised a good show!
First we went to the celebrations at the suburb where Jeh lived: there was a massive stage with the king's head emblazoned on it (as it always at these events), many people singing and dancing, parades of old women dressed in bright costumes, floats with little girls with loads of makeup on in Thai
parade 1
people dressed up traditional dress, and band members in bright green (mam lek made jill and i have a pic taken with them - i will add it when i can! Then we saw their krathong...basically what looked like a UFO, which was covered in lights and to be floated on the water. At this time we were also handed the free (soft) drink going round, which was bright green and tasted of mouthwash! So we er 'lost' it!
After this we headed to the main celebrations, after a short stop for pad thai (with which I practiced my chopstick skills - getting much better!). We arrived at the right place, were directed to a car park, and then we had to get on a 'bus' (3 wooden benches for seats, bars instead of windows, crammed fulll...as Sarah said "it makes me feel like a refugee!"). When we got to the festival site, my first thoughts were that it looked like Walsall illuminations on a grand scale (you'd have liked it gran!)...loads of 'krathongs' in the shape of flowers lit with flourescent lights. There were loads of stalls selling all kinds of food imaginable - including french fries, which we couldn't resist!
There were also 'stalls', in the form of people sitting on blankets basically begging for your money, lining every pathway selling little krathongs to float on the water.
We saw people lighting what looked like little hot air balloons and letting them float into the sky, so we mentioned to Jeh we would like to set one off. We bought a plastic one from a little boy of about 6 by the side of the road (we later realised we should have had a paper one...), and we all held it while he set fire to the bottom. We let go and all seemed fine...it rose higher and higher, and we were all taking photos and very pleased with ourselves, but then it started diving, diving and er hit a tree and it caught on fire! So we ran away! (we went back later tho and the tree was ok!)
Then we went to look at the competition for the biggest Krathong...,they were all impressive but pretty much of a muchness so I will just put one of them up here for you! After that we went to sit on the grass with mam lek, and watched a
krathong
ufo-type thing 2 hour long show consisting of men dressed in very shiny costumes dancing about and 'fighting' (it was the monkeys taking on the giants apparently!), followed by the firework display over the water, which was very impressive and lasted about 1/2 hour (cost 12 million baht apparently! and was to cost even more Sat night cos that was the climax). My fave bit was the end when the Singha beer logo (they were the sponsors) came up in fireworks - v cheesy! Mam lek then bought us some krathongs to float saturday night.
The next day (after a bad nights sleep with 4 of us sharing a the hardest double bed ever!) we made the journey home, via an impressive wat ruins and some other sights in the area, as well as mam lek's husband's brother's house for lunch. During lunch Jeh wanted her photos taken with all of us and complained that she looked 'too dark' compared to me! (they all want to be white!) which made me laugh as I always complain of looking white compared to everyone else!
That night we thought we were just going to float our krathongs on the nearby river, but
float
girls with too much make-up in fact we ended up going to the real celebrations (q large for an area this small). After dodging fireworks (many of which were set alight by small children, and thrown into the water or ground - terrifying!) we managed to get to the water to light and float our krathongs, and then we were invited to watch the ladyboy competition in the VIP section with the director! It was good, but the ladyboy who I thought looked most like a woman didnt win, so I was disappointed!! (it was like Miss World, they made speeches and everything!...slightly surreal.) Then we all went home and collapsed with exhaustion!!
Thats all for now! Hope you are all well,
Naomi xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0756s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
em
non-member comment
Looks amazing huni!! miss u xxx