German version
Ooops! It´s rather unnecessary to mention that I did not write too much during the last months – nothing to be exact.

Now, I got tons of material piled up and it looks like Thailand is in the middle of a new and of course bizarre, sanguinary political situation.
But let´s step back to more happier days, when Thailand was weird too, but more romantic: Loi Krathong 2009 beginning of November.

I had travelled to Kanchanaburi to see a friend after Bangkok made me feel like choking again. Also, Bangkok is just way too crowded to spend the festival of lights in that Moloch. And your Krathong float doesn´t last very long in the wavy floods of Chao Praya River anyway.
A trip to Kanchaburi is so far my second best alternative. Quicker and cheaper than traveling nine hours back to the village in Udon Thani province. 77 Baht and about 2 ½ hours from the Sai Tai Southern bus terminal.



Kanchanaburi bus terminal

In Bangkok most people buy their Krathong floats but in the villages there are no vendors but lots of materials and plenty of time.
Since I had nothing else to do than burning dead leaves, entertaining the grandmother and chopping bamboo I broke down some banana palm branches and build four Krathong floats in total.



Neighbors and their baby daughter were my colleagues at the Krathong shipyard



Banana branches as raw material

The base was a disc of banana tree trunk, the rest is paper (which seems to be not allowed, but since there is no police nothing will happen), incense sticks, yasmin flowers and everything that might look nice.

We launched them in a nearby lake, but as there was strong wind I could light up none of my candles.



My Krathong flagship



Another Krathong creation of mine



Two more Krathong floats

While in Bangkok I always celebrated Loi Krathong as romantic as possible, forest Thais appear to have no sense for that. Accordingly, my friends retreated to a neighbor´s house where they spend the rest of the evening watching those silly movies while I went to bed at 8!!!

Tags: loi krathong 2009 travel thai thailand kanchanburi village festival