Ko Chang, Thailand - Water Festival of Loi Kathong

出典: くみこみックス

2012年7月15日 (日) 12:30の版

Thailand is a land of enchanting and exotic tastes for foreign guests as I was to discover when I skilled the Water Festival of Loi Kathong on the island of Ko Chang.

Ko Chang

In October 2003, the travel bug seriously bit me. The signs and symptoms led me to sell my enterprise, pack a modest backpack with necessary items and roll into visit site Los Angeles International mike geary truth about abs Airport with a significant credit card and an attitude. A few days later, I was in Thailand and headed for the island of Ko Chang, positioned close to the border with Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand.

Ko Chang is a heavily forested island with small towns full of beach huts. This is what I was precisely what I was immediately after. Spending days lounging in the sun and contemplating my navel. Unfortunately, I soon experienced the nearby bacteria, which was not what I was after.

Because I had rented my beach hut for a week with payment in advance, the household operating the location looked me upon favorably. They took pity on me and I was soon expanding fat on Tom Yom Kung and other soups and curries. Right after 4 days, I had finally kicked the bug and felt halfway human. This was great news as it was the night of the complete moon water festival.

I had heard of full moon festivals in Thailand. For hard partying tourists, this was apparently the night the large beach parties happened. In Ko Chang, it was a tiny various as the night was tailored to the actual Thais, not tourist.

The Loi Kathong Festival occurs each and every complete moon. Offerings are offered to appease the water spirits. These offerings come in the form of banana leaf bowls with flowers, fruit, candles and incense. The candles and incense are lit and everybody heads down the beach and starts putting them in the water. It is one particular of the much more incredible light shows you will ever see and beats Las Vegas hands down. Thousands, and I mean thousands, of little lights bobbing on the surface of the smooth ocean.

Immediately after the bowls comes one of the most visually remarkable items Ive ever observed. Everyone is familiar with the paper lanterns used in Asia. Usually, they come in the form of a rectangle form with a bamboo or light wire frame. Very popular with college students given that they are low cost and look greater than a bare light bulb.

For the festival, Thais would take these paper lanterns and close off the top. They would then affix a small this paper plate to the eat stop eat bottom with a candle on it. Light the candle, wait for the heat to do its perform and they had an instant hot air balloon. As soon as the lanterns could float, you just let go and off the slowly went more than the ocean. It was a sight to see as there were thousands of them floating more than the water.

As the festival wound down, the ocean had been transformed. The air was full of gracefully floating lanterns even though the water itself was dotted with slowly bobbing points of light.

If you intend to travel to Thailand, make sure you schedule your trip around a complete moon. It is a scene youll never ever forget.