So yeah Thailand...what a place. Thailand, like most countries as we have been learning, has it's regional differences; the 'cultural' north is ruled by temples and hill tribes, the south is all vacation with it's powdery white beaches and bathtub warm water. Despite these slight cultural differences however the country seems to share a common love for celebration. In our travels Thailand has proven to be one of the most celebratory cultures we've encountered. They celebrate anything it seems. The King's birthday for example..it's in December..but they began celebrating back in October with ribbon-framed, near billboard sized portraits of him 'administering' over every major intersection and traffic circle and with the entire country dressed in pink and yellow shirts in honor of his majesty's favorite colors.
We were lucky enough to stumble across one of the two major yearly celebrations. Loi Krathong, on the 12th full moon of the year, celebrating the life giving force of water and nature with an offering of floating lanterns set adrift in the ocean or lake..sort of a Thai Thanksgiving. Songkran, the other festival around new years in April, is apparently a celebration of rock's magnificent defeat of scissor.
In Chiangmai we spied some monks assembling some rather large lanterns..
It was still about a week before the full moon when we started to see the Loi Krathong celebrations begin. It was our last night in Chiangmai and we ventured to the normally scheduled Sunday night market; but this time the market was gearing up for the 12moonwater festival with markets, music, traditional Thai dancing performances and even a couple of sumo wrestling bouts.
We shopped the market and watched the local bands set up..
We passed many colorful monks and penitent children..
We watched a repertoire of traditionally costumed dancers filter onto stage fluttering fans and twirling umbrellas, bowing in and out of the rhythm of the twangy string and drum music..
..until a troupe of retirees showed up dressed in weird zebra and red leopard print kimonos and began swaying and undulating their way arthritically up onto stage and into these large egg shaped things floating in a glowing pool of water..ok so there wasn't really any egg pods or glowing pools of water but with their staccato'd swaying, porcelain smiles, and eerily unfocused gaze it still reminded me of the rapture scene from Cocoon.
Luckily this ended as soon as the mother ship arrived. And then the sumo started. Though strikingly similar to a Discovery channel show we had watched recently on strange sexual perversions (fuzzy costume fetishes and other weird Freudian infantile regression issues) this was quite fun to watch.
The next day we decided to heed wise words and make our way south.
Our next stop was Sukhothai, seat of the original Thai kings. Here we rode bikes around the ruins of the ancient temple city. Reflecting on the many lakes and temples..
and reclining before many grand buddha.
After Sukothai it was back to Bangkok where we hitched a ride on a bird and flew south for the winter to Krabi, home of some world class scuba diving and rock climbing..neither of which, unfortunately, were we planning or prepared to do. But I don't think you can visit Thailand without the compulsory visit to the beaches of the south.
The south is the perfect place for those tired of Hawaii / Cancun vacations. It really is like the post cards..all limestone cliffs, emerald blue water and sunsets.
The downside to this is that it really is like the post cards and so it is quite crowded and touristic; an unwelcomed change from the more cultural and traditional feel of the north that we had acclimated to.
After a couple of days in Krabi we made our way to the Gulf of Thailand to the island of Ko Phangan. We stayed here for a couple of days and got to see the actual moon-water celebrations, it was neat to see all the families lighting their sparkling lanterns and floating these out into the waveless ocean as a sign of thanks..
After a few days cruising the island on motobike we had to head back to Bangkok to pick up our flight into Cambodia. On the way back we visited a famous floating market..this was quite a neat scene with all the local farmers out on their paddle canoes selling their flora and fauna to the main town stores. Basically this part of Thailand is all water-logged..so the farmers simply divert streams off the near by river and flood their orchards..they then paddle between the trees to collect various fruits and vegetables (bananas, oranges, bamboo, pineapple, etc) and then paddle straight to the river front market to sell direct to trucks, families, and restaurant owners, etc.
After the floating market we made our way to the new Bangkok International airport (which is quite a cool piece of architecture), ate our last Thaifood meal and said our goodbyes to Thailand along with promises to return.
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