Loy Loy Kratong

Hey Everyone! I’m really sorry for not posting anything in a long, long time. My one month internet connection in my apartment expired last week and now that I’m working full time I’ve decided to just use the internet when at work and use my time at home for other things. The only problem with that is, just like before, I don’t have any access to the internet on my days off (Mon, Tue) and I’m hesitant to transport my laptop back and forth from work on Sundays when I work in Bangna. So there goes half the week. My apologies for not being connected the past couple days, I promise I’ll be around and keep updating as often as I can. For now, there’s a couple big stories to get into to.

The first story would have to be my new girlfriend. Her name is Songtai and she works for the AIS phone service provider here in Thailand. As always, my work schedule makes it tough to find time together but we’ve managed. We had a date last Sunday which brings me to story two.

I think I’ve mentioned Loy Kratong on here before but just in case you forgot it’s one of the major holidays here. It’s always on the full moon in November and is for celebrating the end of the rainy season/ thanking the water spirits for the rice harvest. Part of the celebration is the floating of the ‘kratong’, a small little boat made of banana leaves and flowers. You’re supposed to make a wish and let it go in the water where it will float away along with all your worries. Pretty cool. You can buy pre-made kratongs all over the place on the day, or you can buy the materials and make it yourself. I had so much fun making mine last year that I had to do it again. So Andrew, Vanessa, Fern, Songtai, and I made ours up in my room and made our way down to the Chao Praya (big river running through Bangkok). It was crazy. The spot where we went is always one of the most popular to go floating so there were people everywhere. There was a concert with traditional thai dancing which is always cool. There were a dozen places to float your kratong in some stagnant water but we wanted to put em in some flowing water. We got tickets for the river taxi to take us out to the middle of the river to let them go which was definitely the way to go. The whole time you could hear the loud music of the concert and see the fireworks going off in the distance. Thailand loves fireworks on their holidays and Loy Kratong is no exception. There have actually been fireworks going off every night for weeks in preparation for the big day. Off my balcony you can see 3 or 4 separate displays at a time. Another thing the Thais love to do is release ‘kom fai’. They’re floating lanterns that take off into the sky when you light the candle inside (You’re supposed to make a wish with these too). There’s some pictures of the festival that’re making their way online and I’ll have them up here when I find them.

That’s the biggest news from the past week. I’m getting really excited for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but I’ll obviously be really homesick at the same time. I think we’ll go to the same steakhouse we went to last year that had the thanksgiving buffet which promises to be delicious. I have so much to be thankful for.

much love
j