Ko Chang, Thailand - Water Festival of Loi Kathong

出典: くみこみックス

2012年7月27日 (金) 16:16の版

Thailand is a land of enchanting and exotic tastes for foreign visitors as I was to find out 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 company, pack a little backpack with essential products and roll into Los Angeles International Airport with a main credit card and an attitude. A handful of days later, I was in Thailand and headed for the island of Ko Chang, located close to the border with Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand.

Ko Chang is a heavily forested island with little towns complete of beach huts. This is what I was specifically what I was right after. Spending days lounging in the sun and contemplating my navel. However, I soon knowledgeable the local bacteria, which was not what I was immediately after.

Because I had rented my beach hut for a week with payment in advance, the family members running the place looked me upon favorably. They took pity on me and I was soon expanding fat on Tom Yom Kung and other soups and curries. After four days, I had lastly 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 complete moon festivals in Thailand. For difficult partying tourists, this was apparently the night the large beach parties occurred. In Ko Chang, it was a small different as the night was tailored to the actual Thais, not tourist.

The Loi Kathong Festival takes place every single complete moon. Offerings are given 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 everyone heads down the beach and begins putting them in the water. It is 1 of the 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 things Ive ever noticed. Everyone is familiar with the paper lanterns used in Asia. Typically, they come in the form of a visit site rectangle form with a bamboo or light wire frame. Extremely popular with college students since they are low cost and appear much better than a bare site light bulb.

For the festival, Thais would take these paper lanterns and close off the top. They would then affix a modest this paper plate to the bottom with a candle on it. Light the candle, wait for the heat to do its operate and they had an instant hot air balloon. When the lanterns could float, you basically let go and off the slowly went more than the ocean. It was a sight to see as there had been 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 positive you schedule your trip about a full moon. It is a scene youll never shakeology forget.