Ko Chang, Thailand Water Festival of Loi Kathong

出典: くみこみックス

2012年6月30日 (土) 07:40の版

Thailand is a land of enchanting and exotic tastes for foreign visitors as I was to discover when I experienced 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 business, pack a tiny backpack with needed items and roll into Los Angeles International Airport with a major credit card and an attitude. A few days later, I was in Thailand and anabolic cookbook 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 tiny towns complete of beach huts. This is what I was precisely what I was after. Spending days lounging in the sun and contemplating my navel. Regrettably, I soon experienced the neighborhood bacteria, which was not what I was immediately after.

Because I had rented my beach hut for a week with payment in mike chang six pack shortcuts advance, the family members 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. After 4 days, I had finally kicked the bug and felt halfway human. This was very good news as it was the night of the complete moon water festival.

I had heard of full moon festivals in Thailand. For tough partying tourists, this was apparently the night the big beach parties occurred. In Ko Chang, it was a little diverse as the night was tailored to the actual Thais, not tourist.

The Loi Kathong Festival happens every single complete moon. Offerings are provided 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 putting them in the water. It is a single 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 insanity workout smooth ocean.

After the bowls comes a single of the most visually wonderful factors Ive ever seen. Everybody is familiar with the paper lanterns utilized in Asia. Normally, they come in the form of a rectangle form with a bamboo or light wire frame. Really well-known with college students given that they are cheap and look far better than a bare light bulb.

For the festival, Thais would take these paper lanterns and close off the prime. They would then affix a tiny this paper plate to the 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. Once the lanterns could float, you simply 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 over the water.

As the festival wound down, the ocean had been transformed. The air was full of gracefully floating lanterns while 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 in no way forget.