Ko Chang, Thailand - Water Festival of Loi Kathong

出典: くみこみックス

2012年7月29日 (日) 10:04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 company, pack a tiny backpack with necessary products and roll into Los Angeles International Airport with a significant 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 tiny towns full of beach huts. This is what I was precisely what I was right after. Spending days lounging in the sun and contemplating my navel. However, I soon experienced the local bacteria, which was not what I was after.

Given that I had rented my beach hut for a week with payment in advance, the household running the spot looked me upon site preview favorably. They took pity on me and I was soon expanding fat on Tom Yom Kung and other soups and curries. Immediately after 4 days, I had finally kicked the bug and felt halfway human. This was good 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 tiny diverse as the night was tailored to the actual Thais, not tourist.

The Loi Kathong Festival takes place every 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 every person heads down the beach and begins placing them in the water. It is one particular of the far more incredible light shows you will ever see and beats Las Vegas hands down. Thousands, and I mean thousands, of small lights bobbing on the surface of the smooth ocean.

Immediately after the bowls comes one particular of the most visually amazing issues Ive ever fat loss factor observed. Every person is familiar with the paper lanterns used in Asia. Typically, they come in the form of a rectangle form with a bamboo or light wire frame. Really well-liked with college students considering that they are inexpensive 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 visit tiny 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. Once the lanterns could float, you simply let go and off the slowly went over the ocean. It was a sight to see as there were thousands of them floating over the water.

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

If you intend to travel to Thailand, make confident you schedule your trip about a complete moon. It is a scene youll by no means forget.