Having arrived here about five days ago to meet three of my friends from southern thailand i ended up hanging out with one of them for 2 evenings another i saw for about 20mins before she had to leave the country due to a visa about to expire and i never did work out where the last one ended up but she was in town somewhere. As per usual though in five days i haven't lacked for company as every beer in the restaurant at the place where i am staying seems to end in a new group of mates.
So back to the start; Loi Kratong (Festival of lights) is a festival mainly celebrated in Chang Mai in Northern Thailand The word “Loy” means to float and “Krathong” is a small vessel made from banana leaves which can float on water. A candle is placed in the krathong, along with incense sticks and small coins. A wish is then made and the “krathong” is sent floating down the river. This act is seen as a symbolic gesture of gratitude to the Mother River – the source of water without which we could not survive. Thai belief is that floating the beautiful Krathong away also refers to sending away misfortune and bad things from the past and asking for good luck & fortune in the future. They also let go ballons with candels in them to float up in to the sky. Thais believe that this act of reverence to the river goddess atones for their acts of pollution into the river during the year which is a little ironic as the amount of pollution from these floating ballons and boats as well as fireworks and the general mass of humanity was incredible with litter everywhere after the festival. Of course there is associated dressing up and parades etc happening every night.
Public fireworks to start the Festival
One of the Thai girls dressed up for the festival parade
More Thai girls being carried along in the parade
All of the lights in this photo are fire ballons that have been let off the whole sky was covered in them
People on the river banks lighting their fire ballons
Thais letting off floating boats (NB if the picture looks good it is cause i stole it from a web-site as none of mine turned out)
The floating ballons and boats were the more spiritual side of the event but the Thais mainly turn it into a huge street party with fireworks everywhere (hence the title of this post). Of course being SE Asia there are no rules surrounding what can be sold to whom so some pretty massive fireworks are sold.
One of the more interesting fellows i have meet on my travels (note the red white and blue mohawk which are the colours of the thai flag) He is holding a single firework he brought, we nicknamed it the buzukka needless to say it was VERY loud.
One of the fireworks constantly going off just above our heads
More shots of the ballons all through the night sky
It is hard to describe the intensity of the fireworks with huge banngers going off almost constantly echoing around the city. By mid night each night i felt shattered i'm sure it was something akin to shellshock with constant hieghtened intensity and adrellin to get ready to jump out they way if bangers were thrown your way or a wayward sky rocket headed towards you.
So that was three nights in a row of great fun the only respite i had was on the third night when one of the girls i was out with freked out after being hit on the shoulder by a firework so we followed the families into a market where we found a classic fair looking like something out of the distant past, a ferris wheel with belts and pulleys and all manner of mechanical things looking like someone had been let lose in a junk yard and told they had to build a working ferris wheel with only the parts they could salvage from three trucks and a tank. Of course being festival means the kids don't get to sleep any more than the adults so the fact that it was mid night didn't change the number of kids out playing. (great fun)
Kids playing in the fair at mid night
The other great find at this market was the deep fried bugs, it started out as a dare with the guys i was with to eat one cricket each, but after trying one i brought a bag full of assorted bugs (like a fifty cent lolly mix) and that was my mid night snack on the way home (while my friends ate burger king - i felt so superior to them)
My first cricket
My bag of bugs; really yummy but they stick in your teeth something terrible
I have to say Loi Krathong which was never part of my orignal plans and I only ended up at because i wanted to hang out with friends I met in southern Thailand was a real highlight and i would definitly recommned it to anybody.
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