Saturday I departed for my first excursion out of Phitsanulok to Sukhothai to celebrate the Loy Krathong Festival, illustrated above by the friendly people at Google.
The day started with an hour ride to Sukhothai on a bus that looked shockingly similar to the one in which Chris McCandless met his untimely demise. Arriving just before the bus left the station I found myself shuffling past multiple sets of suspecting eyes towards the very back seat. On the way down the aisle I slammed my head into a low hanging overhead light. The moment brought about a flurry of giggles from a few Thai girls, I guess suave is an international language.
The back seat of the bus was much like final seat on any Southwest flight. Cramped and more or less inside the bathroom, with the added bonus of the searing heat from the engine compartment.
I quickly forgot the conditions though, when I realized I was sitting next to a child monk who fascinated me. He turned and stared at me, I'd like to say I responded with something, anything, but I simply diverted my eyes like a nervous school girl and stared at my shoes. His feet barely touched the floor and he intimidated the shit out of me.
The festival took place later that night inside the Sukhothai Historic Park. The ruins in the park were lit up with colored lights and a performance was put on reenacting what appeared to be an ancient battle.
The entire thing looked like something out of a high budget Disney production, but I'm assuming here due to my lack of Disney theme park exposure (I'm pretty sure this constitutes as child negligence these days).
Undoubtedly the highlight of the night was placing the Krathongs into the river. These are small elaborate floats made of banana leaves with candles and incense that are set adrift to give thanks to the water goddess and bring good luck.
The Krathong I purchased cost 10 baht, roughly 29 cents so I'm not sure how much good luck I'm going to get, but hey better than nothing.
The entire night was capped off by a huge fireworks display, a real Amurican fireworks display, where I learned that the "OOOHHS" and "AAAAHHS" of July 4th translate perfectly into Thai.
"Lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do das, or crap flappers" Yeh, they had those
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