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                         Loy Kratong in Thailand

    It’s November, and the weather in Thailand has been chilly. I actually love it as it reminds me the Christmas season in my country in the Philippines.

Almost 7 months…it seems a year since I left Philippines, and yet I feel that things are just happened yesterday. Time really flies!

I like Thailand – the fact that it’s closer to the Philippines, the weather is just almost the same and people are just like Filipinos, well the culture is much more different.

There are many important events in Thailand, the funny thing was, and I only knew this 1 or 2 days before the event. At least my boss told me so. Hahaha!!  

Ok, here’s the highlight…so far the best occasion and the momentous that I’ve been to was the Loy Kratong festival. Loy Kratong is one of the most popular and romantic of Thailand's traditional festivals. Loy literally translates to "float", while Kratong is the Thai word for a sort of tray made out of banana leaves.

It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and everybody was ready for the parade. Kids were dressed in colorful attire and parents were busy putting make up on their children. Teachers were preparing with their assigned station. And as foreign teacher, me and my colleagues were just standing and waiting for the sign to go. It was late and the students were anxious to wait (but are sure they are used to it since they were a kid).

We were lined up with the ‘band’ it was a traditional music that they played; I have no idea what was the title of the music. Anyway, while we were waiting for them to start, the ‘band’ played some gong music and we actually danced to it, together with the Thai teachers. We carried on and danced too. It was really fun and I really enjoyed. People were looking at us and my Anuban (kindergarten) students were deliberately staring. And the way they danced was just too hard for me to harmonize with them! They’re hands were just softly gliding back and forth. All I know is modern, hip-hop and disco danced.

Finally, the signed was clearly instructed and we moved on. Everybody was joyful and at their own spirit. I was smiling all the way down the road. As the music played on, we were dancing with my colleague and laughing. We evenly joking with each other that we should take some drinks before we joined the parade. So that the dance will even rockier! Crazy thought!

Once in a while, we stopped and rest due to the traffic and people were watching taking photos. We ended up like an hour or so, it was a slow parade. But quite fun.

When we were near at the school, my colleagues and I escaped the lined and went to get some ‘drinks’. They bought Leo beer and we had a drink at the mini-store. After a short talked and laughed, we proceeded to the mini mart nearby and continued the drinking session there. I didn’t drink a lot because I had this tendency pain with my stomach ulcer. One of my colleagues was waiting with his family to come and I was also waiting for my Thai friend to picked me up. There were fireworks every now and then and it was so nice! Then suddenly, it rained.

I had a dinner date with my Thai friend and my Thai family and I was dressed up with my new dress. I was holding my Kratong flowers till we finished the dinner. My Thai Mom made it for me. 

By 9 o’clock, we went to the sea and decided to float our Kratong. It was windy and the waves were just stubborn. It was a bit of low tide so we need to walk a little bit further. I was wearing a mini-high heels sandal so it was stuck on the sticky sand.

I’ve waited for my friends so we could do it together. Then, I’ve made a wished. The float began…

 We walked at the Night Market afterwards and looked for some things. Just mainly sight-seeing. Hehehe.

As far as I’d experienced this Loy Kratong was the best festival I’d ever went to. Fun, colorful, and romantic – even if am single, at least romantic friendship!

                           Happy Loy Kratong!!