When I'm traveling my emotions are often amplified. When traveling during holidays I run the emotional gamut from insanely happy to deeply pensive and sometimes lonely. And if I'm traveling to observe another holiday being celebrated during one of my regularly-scheduled holidays, then there's an added level of surrealism.
Such was the case this Thanksgiving. In my first year in Indonesia I spent Thanksgiving with my teacher family making mango salad, Indonesian empanadas and singing karaoke at the mall (none of the aforementioned activities were done in an effort to replace my traditional Thanksgiving activities, they were just what I happened to be doing at the time). This year, I went to Thailand with a group of volunteers to observe a Thai/Buddhist festival called Loy Krathong.
While I got off to a rocky start by bringing the wrong passport to the airport and then missing a second flight on my layover in Singapore (I didn't realize that you had to re-check in/go through immigration for a transfer flight), I was in the mood to be grateful by the time I reached Thailand. Part of the reason for my feelings of gratitude was because on the night I was stranded in the Jakarta airport after missing my first flight, I called one of my teacher friends at around 8:30 pm and she immediately said "c'mon over", even though her whole family is currently struggling to deal with the trauma of her younger brother's brain tumor. He has recently undergone surgery no. 1 to remove some of the tumor (which has already taken his sight) and it is naturally a high-risk operation with severe side effects. It's really scary to hear about but her family remains positive, upbeat and focused on caring for him and making him feel the best that he can. Despite this trial, they gave me shelter, good company and helped me get to Thailand.
So I arrived in Thailand two days late but on an adventure high and feeling grateful for all the people who helped me to get there (you especially padres) and for all the people and experiences which are currently coloring my life.
I was originally supposed to be in Phuket on Sunday morning, but I ended up arriving on Tuesday afternoon, roughly 32 hours before the Loy Krathong festival. After meeting my friends, we did some sight-seeing. The day of the full moon, a Wednesday, we went around Phuket to see the Big Buddha and Chalong temple. The Big Buddha is a ginormous white statue of the Buddha sitting atop a mountain. The view of Phuket from above was also pretty nice.
We also saw a baby elephant taking a nap on our way down from the summit. Zoe, if you're reading this, we did not ride them.
Next we went to a beautiful set of temples, one of which held a relatively recently-acquired artifact: a splinter of Lord Buddha's bone. As we were walking through the peaceful temple grounds, milling with all the tourists and worshippers in the tranquil sunlight, a sudden explosion of firecrackers ripped through the settled calm. A small old man with a wiry broom emerged from the smoke surrounding a brick chimney and nonchalantly began sweeping away the ashes and small bits of firecracker within. I know we weren't the only foreigners who suffered a mild heart attack from that unexpected disturbance of energy. I still have no idea what the fireworks in the middle of the afternoon were for.
When I started planning this trip back in June I originally wanted to go to Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand where you see all the Google images of skies filled with floating lanterns and lakes dancing with hundreds of candle flames "like a fairy ballroom", as one site promised. However, plane ticket prices went up before I got my act together and by then a group of volunteers was already going to Phuket, which, although perhaps more expensive on the ground, was the cheaper flight.
That being said, I'm happy with what we saw of the festival and Phuket is not so shabby of a place to be either. Really, nothing could disappoint me at that point, which I think is a good mental place to be in when you're showing gratitude to a water goddess and casting off your negative energy to float away with the old year, as are some of the purposes of the Loy Krathong festival. There weren't hundreds of people adorning the night with lights on the less tourist-filled beach we ended up at but there were locals celebrating and we managed to escape the commercial vibe.
After dinner we went down to the fish scale waters and walked to the end of a dock leading into the path of moonlight blazing through the inky inlet. Rawai beach, about 45 minutes from my hostel, was where we ended our afternoon tour of Buddhist relics and temples around Phuket. There was no sand, only a long wooden dock. I read that start time for casting off lanterns and krathong was sundown but locals told us people usually went down to the water after 8.
A krathong is a floating basket usually made from banana tree trunk and leaves pinned decoratively around the edge with flowers, incense and a candle in the middle. I saw some people put locks of hair and nail clippings in their basket as well (symbols of the old energy you are casting off).
Loy Krathong is said to be a romantic festival. If you and your beloved cast off your krathong together and your baskets bob off into the night, two lights burning beside each other until they're out of sight, then that is a sign of everlasting love. The main threat to everlasting love was, of course, the waves, which doused almost everyone's krathong after a few seconds. But I'm sure the water goddess took the intentions of those lovers into consideration when dolling out blessings.
DAY 3: KOH PHI PHI (aka FI FI) ISLANDS
The next day we visited the pearl of paradise.
After passing a Viking cave...
And some beautiful rock patterns:
We saw before us the beach where they filmed The Beach (this area is called Maya Bay).
Our guide had an excellent response when asked where the star, Leonardo DeCappuccino, was now. Without a beat she responded, "he's still asleep in my bed." I guess even Leo needs a break from battling sharks bare-handed and causing the fall of paradise.
As we gathered around the red-checkered cloth of a bar table on Thursday evening, having had our fill of pad thai, sweet mango sticky rice and green curry, the other nine volunteers and I plus our hostel friend Chiu from China took a moment to observe a tradition that would be celebrated in a matter of hours on the other side of the world among all our family and friends but that we had to import and join with other local traditions in the land we were in. We each recognized what we were thankful for and then joined the throng of ladyboys, locals and tourists mingling on the street.
Such was the case this Thanksgiving. In my first year in Indonesia I spent Thanksgiving with my teacher family making mango salad, Indonesian empanadas and singing karaoke at the mall (none of the aforementioned activities were done in an effort to replace my traditional Thanksgiving activities, they were just what I happened to be doing at the time). This year, I went to Thailand with a group of volunteers to observe a Thai/Buddhist festival called Loy Krathong.
While I got off to a rocky start by bringing the wrong passport to the airport and then missing a second flight on my layover in Singapore (I didn't realize that you had to re-check in/go through immigration for a transfer flight), I was in the mood to be grateful by the time I reached Thailand. Part of the reason for my feelings of gratitude was because on the night I was stranded in the Jakarta airport after missing my first flight, I called one of my teacher friends at around 8:30 pm and she immediately said "c'mon over", even though her whole family is currently struggling to deal with the trauma of her younger brother's brain tumor. He has recently undergone surgery no. 1 to remove some of the tumor (which has already taken his sight) and it is naturally a high-risk operation with severe side effects. It's really scary to hear about but her family remains positive, upbeat and focused on caring for him and making him feel the best that he can. Despite this trial, they gave me shelter, good company and helped me get to Thailand.
So I arrived in Thailand two days late but on an adventure high and feeling grateful for all the people who helped me to get there (you especially padres) and for all the people and experiences which are currently coloring my life.
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| Catching a snooze at the Singapore airport. |
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| No shawl, no pants, no Buddha. |
 |
| A bodhisattva in the fur |
We also saw a baby elephant taking a nap on our way down from the summit. Zoe, if you're reading this, we did not ride them.
Next we went to a beautiful set of temples, one of which held a relatively recently-acquired artifact: a splinter of Lord Buddha's bone. As we were walking through the peaceful temple grounds, milling with all the tourists and worshippers in the tranquil sunlight, a sudden explosion of firecrackers ripped through the settled calm. A small old man with a wiry broom emerged from the smoke surrounding a brick chimney and nonchalantly began sweeping away the ashes and small bits of firecracker within. I know we weren't the only foreigners who suffered a mild heart attack from that unexpected disturbance of energy. I still have no idea what the fireworks in the middle of the afternoon were for.
 |
| In the highest room in the tallest tower was a crystal ball sitting atop a lotus flower surrounded by golden Buddha statues looking after what I THINK was the splinter of Lord Buddha's bone, one of the famous Buddhist relics residing in Thailand. |
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| Wat Chalong, the temple of a billion quadrillion steps (and just as many Buddha statues.) |
That being said, I'm happy with what we saw of the festival and Phuket is not so shabby of a place to be either. Really, nothing could disappoint me at that point, which I think is a good mental place to be in when you're showing gratitude to a water goddess and casting off your negative energy to float away with the old year, as are some of the purposes of the Loy Krathong festival. There weren't hundreds of people adorning the night with lights on the less tourist-filled beach we ended up at but there were locals celebrating and we managed to escape the commercial vibe.
After dinner we went down to the fish scale waters and walked to the end of a dock leading into the path of moonlight blazing through the inky inlet. Rawai beach, about 45 minutes from my hostel, was where we ended our afternoon tour of Buddhist relics and temples around Phuket. There was no sand, only a long wooden dock. I read that start time for casting off lanterns and krathong was sundown but locals told us people usually went down to the water after 8.
A krathong is a floating basket usually made from banana tree trunk and leaves pinned decoratively around the edge with flowers, incense and a candle in the middle. I saw some people put locks of hair and nail clippings in their basket as well (symbols of the old energy you are casting off).
Loy Krathong is said to be a romantic festival. If you and your beloved cast off your krathong together and your baskets bob off into the night, two lights burning beside each other until they're out of sight, then that is a sign of everlasting love. The main threat to everlasting love was, of course, the waves, which doused almost everyone's krathong after a few seconds. But I'm sure the water goddess took the intentions of those lovers into consideration when dolling out blessings.
DAY 3: KOH PHI PHI (aka FI FI) ISLANDS
The next day we visited the pearl of paradise.
After passing a Viking cave...
And some beautiful rock patterns:
We saw before us the beach where they filmed The Beach (this area is called Maya Bay).
Our guide had an excellent response when asked where the star, Leonardo DeCappuccino, was now. Without a beat she responded, "he's still asleep in my bed." I guess even Leo needs a break from battling sharks bare-handed and causing the fall of paradise.
As we gathered around the red-checkered cloth of a bar table on Thursday evening, having had our fill of pad thai, sweet mango sticky rice and green curry, the other nine volunteers and I plus our hostel friend Chiu from China took a moment to observe a tradition that would be celebrated in a matter of hours on the other side of the world among all our family and friends but that we had to import and join with other local traditions in the land we were in. We each recognized what we were thankful for and then joined the throng of ladyboys, locals and tourists mingling on the street.
