Nakhon Phanom Fireboat Festival (23 - 31 Sept)

Image from thailand-travelonline.com

Thailand are good at this spectacles - one very good reason to visit of live here

"The festival, significant for Buddhist people in Isaan, is best known for the exquisite, ceremonial boats and the night-time ceremony to pay respect to the Lord Buddha, make merit with the Khong Kha or goddess of water, and to burn all bad luck and evils away with fireboats.

For this year, the event will be held during 23rd to 31st of October on the banks of the Mekong river near Nakhon Phanom City Hall. The procession of splendid illuminated boats will be a highlight of the night. Each boat, made of natural materials such as wood or banana tree trunk containing candles and other symbolic offerings, will be decorated in vary shapes and forms but mostly in traditional Thai designs, then will be lit up and floated on the Mekong River. The line of illuminated boats will light up the night with striking scenes."

Museum Festival - Phuket

Jemma and I decided to get the local bus into Phuket Town to visit the special Museum Festival in Phuket Town.  After visiting a Chinese Temple to give blessings we wandered through the back streets, along Yaowarat Road and then turning into Krabi Road.

Along Krabi Road is the Phuket Thai Hua Museum - this museum celebrates the special relationship that Phuket has had with the Chinese people and the Museum investigates the humble beginnings of this relationship. (The museum will be written about in another posting - today we were collecting stamps).

After this we then walked to the Phuket Thai Hua Club. Normally the Phuket Thai Hua Club is a small coffee shop and cafe but today there were a number of stalls celebrating the heritage of Thailand. We played with the traditional puppets and collected our second stamp.

 Now Daddy decided he need a coffee and Jemma wanted air-conditioning -

Koffie Terrace was our next stop. After refuelling we turned down Soi Romanee and onto Thalang Road. 

Here was where there was the Tourist Information of Phuket City Municipality - this was very busy so we did not spend a long time in here - but we got our third stamp.

Our next stop was the Chalermraj Center (Baba Phuket) - (The museum will be written about in another posting - today was collecting stamps).

In here we had a lot of fun - the staff showed Jemma the old toys that were common for children, we had a wonderful time - thank you.

View Phuket Museums in a larger map

World Peace Light - Ayutthaya 21 Sept

Let's all meditate for World Peace.
more information

Phuket Food Festival 14-22 Sept

The Phuket Food Fair has (I think, a 15 year old history) - it is intended as a celebration of local foods for the locals and visitors to Phuket, there will be over 100 stalls to choose from

Any excuse to celebrate food is a good excuse to have a party and the Thai people do know how to party - look at the agenda for the performers.

BUT there will be no alcohol for sale, not that this matters, more interestingly is that there will be no styrofoam containers will be used, no 'old style light-bulbs' be used and the Festival Organisers have requested that no MSG be put into the foods.

Visit and have fun.


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Quicksilver Thailand Surf Competition 12-15 Sept

image courtesy of  Phuket News

There is a Surfing Competition on the way to Phuket:

Quicksilver Thailand Surf Competition 

"The Quiksilver Thailand Surf Competition (sp) 2012 will include a surfing festival with a free rock concert, fashion show and other fun activities at the beach in Patong in front of Phuket Graceland. The venue is moving to Patong and Kalim Beaches from Kata Beach as it will become a much bigger event and a part of the international competition, the ASEAN Surfing Championship held in Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.:

There is a different reason visiting Patong now (sic)...

Fingers crossed for the weather...

image from Wind Guru

Check out Wind Guru for the forecast.

Por Tor Festival 2012

What started out quietly did not end quietly.

The Por Tor Ceremony is a special Festival in Phuket Town which is called "The Hungry Ghost Festival". 

The Chinese Community (which is quite large in Phuket Town) believe that the spirits of their dead ancestors come back each year and so the cakes are made to feed them, turtles because they indicate a long life and red for prosperity. There are a number of postings which can tell you more if you are interested and I did visit Phuket old Town previous to this day.

What was different this year was that there was a parade from Sapan Hin organised for the last day.  There were a great many girls dressed in Chinese costumes and after some fire crackers were lit it was time to leave. Thanks to the staff from the TAT in Phuket Town for their red turtle kanoms.

We paraded from Sapan Hin into Phuket Town and we ended at Por Tor Kong Shrine - passing by more turtles for sale and people watching us.

At Por Tor Kong Shrine there was unquestionably 

'Organised Chaos'.

Our parade (see pic at top) turned onto Takuathung Road, which in fact is a tiny little Soi. 

As we approached Por Tor Kong Shrine I understood where all of those turtles crawled from - where do they go to next? On entering it was clear that there was a high level of cooperation between everybody but as a visitor it was fascinating.

Fire crackers were lit, turtles everywhere, offerings made and blessings asked for - the tables were covered in food and drink but I do wonder whether the offering of the Thai Whisky was... 

Happy Por Tor for 2012

View Chinese Shrines in Phuket in a larger map