Loy Kratong

Midnight, fireworks continue to explode outside my window against a background buzz of 100cc motorcycles as students return to their dorms. It is almost the end of the Loy Kratong festival at Naresuan University and what an awesome two days it has been. I have never seen anything like it before in my life!

Yesterday, outside the temple of Phra Buddhachinarat in Phitsanulok, we lit the candles and incense on our kratongs and launched these highly decorated floating bouquets into the River Nan. With any luck, they will float downstream, and in a few days, after joining up with the Chao Praya River, they will float past Bangkok into the sea, taking all our defilements with them so we can feel refreshed. Well that's the theory. It also happens to be one of biggest celebrations of the year. We watched spectacular shows and performances of Thai dancing from the river bank, not to mention the Miss Phitsanulok beauty contest (which sadly was quite difficult to see without my glasses). Given that this is Thailand, we were never more than three meters away from the nearest street seller offering some local sweet snack to maintain our energy levels. Thousands of people had descended on the city to Loy Kratong, and most were also keen to launch flying lanterns into the night sky. Apparently flights across Thailand are cancelled for the evening because the sky is full of these burning lanterns. It is worth it though, to see the sky sparkling with lanterns, especially as the backdrop to the temples around Phitsanulok.

I said yesterday that it was my best day in Thailand yet, and I thought it would be a while again before this experience would be beaten. I was told by P'Fong at the time that the Naresuan University celebrations would be even better, but I didn't believe it. She was right though: today has surpassed all expectations!

The day did start particularly well because P'Nutt from Warwick visited us and we went out to a quaint Isahn restaurant overlooking the rice fields. A 'gratib' of sticky rice always makes me happy. By the time we got back to the office it was already late afternoon and the parade had begun. It was like a carnival, all the participants were first year students, dressed in traditional costumes and dancing their way to the lake. The first years from each department are charged with preparing a giant kratong, finding a beauty queen, putting on a performance, and parading across campus. Of course, for several weeks our faculty of science students had (at the expense of their studies) been constructing a huge float which is a replica of one of the monuments on campus. On the float sat their beauty queen, and in front students carried their elaborate kratong. All around there were brightly dressed students singing, dancing and beating drums. The procession was so long it must have been dark by the time all the floats and students made it to the lake.

As eager as I was to see the beauty contest (glasses in hand!), nothing gets in the way of Thai people and food, so we nipped off for a quick meal. Dinner cost 25 baht (50p) which still makes me chuckle almost every day.

Back at the fair we enjoyed the singing and dancing performances, one from each department. The time and effort involved in preparing all this is way beyond what any western students could achieve. The performances are so professional, you might think you had paid £100 for a show in London. I was just mesmerised -- I don't know what it is like elsewhere in Thailand but I can tell you this: Naresuan rocks!

I had bought some rather special (read: overpriced) flying lanterns to launch (including a giant red one!) so we set them burning and let them off into the night sky. The full moon was shining equally bright in the background and it really was the perfect night.