Loy Krathong

 Yesterday I went out to celebrate the real Loy Krathong which is basically the celebration of the river. All the people are floating different ornaments on it, wishing good luck and thanking the river at the same time for bringing them water and thus food. The little ornament - as you can see - consists of natural materials: banana leaves and flowers. Then incent sticks are put into it with a candle to light it up. It's really beautiful. 

As you can see from the picture, the whole riverside was closed down so that no cars could enter, the streets there were made into pedestrian streets. There were huge ornaments, too - made by the municipiality I guess - which were probably flown down later on that evening. It truly had a spiritual mood! :-) It was really a pleasure to check that out. 

I went there with a new friend around 6-ish and left around 7, but later on at night, I got back to the place and it was - by that time - stuffed with people already! Anyway. Here are some pictures of the ornaments and me floating down it. 

Hint: never ever go to Loy Krathong in long skirts - I got wet up to my knees - well, also I got dry after 10 minutes, so no problem, but still.... 

There were some ladies who were selling fish in water. It's said to be that when you release your fish, it's like releasing a suffering soul. Since it's All Saints' Day and the Day of the Dead in my country, I thought, I want to do this too - now that I can't light up a candle in the cemetery, this will do. And guess what! I accidentally picked up catfish (without looking into the bag)! 

Releasing the poor souls...

And guess what?! One of my babyfish returned! Saying thank you? Wanted to be more with me? Or just couldn't find its way? It was truly special anyway. (PS: I only hope that the rest of the fish were released, too, at the end of the day, even if no one bought them!)

After this, we went to the KFC for a quick dinner, then later on I joined my colleagues in a bar (which is actually pretty near my house). The bar's style was Halloween and even the band that was playing was dressed up in costumes - playing pretty good and Thai music! It was a very interesting experience, too! 

The saxophone player -vampire was quite handsome! ;-)

Driving around with colleagues late at night and discovering that there is a huge Chinese temple on the riverside! All in all it was a good night out! :-)