Loi Krathong

The Thai festival of Loi Krathong is celebrated on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar -- this year, on the evening of November 28th (which is when this is being written).  "Loi" means "to float" and "krathong" refers to a container (usually lotus-shaped) that floats on water.  A krathong is usually decorated with elaborately folded banana leaves, flowers, an incense stick, and a candle.  On the night of the full moon, Thais launch their krathong on a river, canal, or pond, making a wish as they do.

Some of the students at our school made their krathong today.



Tom, an elementary class teacher, made a beautiful krathong for us.

In Khemmarat, the festival focuses on the Mekong River, naturally enough.  The evening was off to a beautiful start.

Folks began descending a long set of stairs to the river to launch their krathong.  They also began launching floating lanterns, another part of the celebration.

The rainy season in Thailand is from June through October, and we have seen very little rain since we arrived in Thailand at the end of September, but that changed at about 6 pm tonight.

 But the show went on (although with a diminished audience).

  

We made a new friend tonight, a man born in Thailand who was educated in the US and returned to Thailand to marry his bride.  He is a naturalized US citizen, lives very close to us, and was delighted to make some English-speaking friends.  We waited quite awhile for the rain to stop but finally accepted his very kind offer of a ride home.  After we got home, we saw some floating lanterns launched in our own "front yard."

A Busy Mekong River and Monday Market in Khemmarat

It looks like Mary and I will be able to consolidate all the English classes that we cover into morning classes from Tuesday through Friday and have Monday (and afternoons) off.  We operated on that assumption this morning and George took an early walk along the Mekong River, then we visited Khemmarat's Monday market.  Both the river walk and the market provided great photo opportunities.

Nature was flourishing this morning near the river.

And international commerce was thriving on the river with people coming from Laos and supplies headed from Khemmarat toward Laos.

 

 There was a pulley operation underway to get some heavy supplies down the river bank into a waiting boat.

 

 

 



We've recently discovered our own "Starbucks" just a few blocks from home on the way to the river, so George stopped there before heading back.

 

And the proprietor/barrista Moo is a sunny face to greet us every morning (or afternoon).

 





 

The Monday market is a sprawling affair that springs up along one of the two major highways into town.  It has an amazing assortment of merchandise.  The fabrics and buttons are particularly striking.

 

 

Some sections are like individual stores:

 

Drug store

 



 

China store

 

 

Hardware store

 



 

Toy store

 

 

Clothing store

 



Mary bought some clothes and, when she got home and tried them on, wished she'd bought another skirt (200 Baht/$6 U.S. dollars).  Guess we'll be heading to the market again next Monday.