Last weekend was Loy Krathong festival in Thailand, one of the largest and most celebrated holidays all over the country. It is celebrated on the first full moon of the 12th lunar month (November), but in most places the celebration will last 3-5 days. Lonely Planet states that the festival thanks the river goddess for providing life to the fields and forests and asks for forgiveness for the polluting ways of humans. Sukhothai (rising of happiness) is regarded as the first capital of Siam and is the city where the Loy Krathong festival originated. It is still one of the most popular places to experience it.
The Krathongs are little handmade boats made out of banana leaves or wood woven together and very intricate, almost like origami. They decorate them with flowers and put a candle and incense in the middle. When you are ready to “loy” your krathong, you make a wish, toss a few coins in it and float it into the country's waterways. Another tradition during Loy Krathong is to set of large globes, or lanterns into the sky. If you have ever seen pictures from Thailand, most likely you have seen pictures of this. You light the lanterns at the bottom and they take about 5 minutes to fill with hot air. When they feel full you can slowly let go and they speed off into the night sky. When everyone is does this it looks magical and they look like bright stars the farther out they get.
I got to Sukhothai with Lizzie on Saturday morning after an overnight bus ride from Bangkok. We checked into a hostel and got lucky to get an adorable little bungalow in the back yard for 1000 B a night for 3 people (about $33). Shella, another teacher met up with us and we took a tuktuk into the old city and the historical park. We rented bikes ($1 for the day) and spent all day riding around and seeing the “wats”, or old temple ruins. They were beautiful.
After go back to refresh and having dinner of som tom, ginger fish, pad kapow, and some cold Leo, we returned to the much more crowded park. There were lanterns in all of the trees, and people selling all sorts of food, krathongs, you name it. We bought our krathongs and caste them off into the water. We bought our lantern and set them off into the sky! It was an experience I will never forget. There was traditional dancing, singing, light shows and fireworks. After buying some sticky rice in bamboo we went to a local bar to relax and visit and were back in our bungalow to crash. Did I mention how comfortable the bed was? This is not common in Thailand so we were very happy J
Sunday after a breakfast of mochas, green curry and veggie pizza (umm… yeah haha we’re weird and the veggies on the pizza looked like they came from a bag or peas, carrots and corn) we did about the same thing as Saturday, but visited the wats that are outside the main park area. We leisurely rode our bikes into the country roads, singing songs from Katty Perry to Christmas carols. We some great reactions from the Thais and we passed by! The festival was very busy and we ate at the market for dinner, trying food from different stalls that were really delicious. I also tried the Sukhothai noodles, which the guidebook recommended—no complaint here!
We took the 8:30 night back bus to Bangkok and shared a taxi home. All went smoothly until I was paying the taxi and realized I didn’t have any small bills (and Lizzie was out of money). We ended up having to drive to 711, buy some gum to get change, and pay the poor driver. And this was at 3:30 am…I would have to get up just a few hours later for work. But “mai pen rai” (it’s ok, oh well) it all worked out and the weekend was well worth the sleepy Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment