PHUKET: More people than usual turned out this evening for the annual Loy Kratong festival on Phuket.
Refugees from Bangkok and the central provinces under water helped to swell numbers, with more expats also evident in Phuket City.
There appeared to be no profit-takers, with kratongs for those who hadn't made their own costing between 25 baht and 50 baht.
Perhaps the prayers were for a better year to come, with less boat-floating and more prosperity.
Loy Kratong is most of all about renewal, about hope for the future, and it was certain that many people all around Phuket, wherever ceremonies were held tonight, would be hoping for better times.
Perhaps they'd been there in previous years, but for the first time this year we noticed sky lanterns striped with the Thai flag, being send off into the dark to chase the full moon.
The parade around Phuket City was mostly for the young, students full of smiles and hopes for tomorrow, free from concerns about economics and jobs, for the time being at least.
Later at Saphan Hin public park in Phuket City it became a time for romance and for couples to send their banana leaf vessels across the dark waters, promising each other love and loyalty, and for families with young children to carry on the family traditions.
It would have been the same in Bangkok tonight, but we suspect the prayers would have been a little more fervent and the hopes more intense.
Refugees from Bangkok and the central provinces under water helped to swell numbers, with more expats also evident in Phuket City.
There appeared to be no profit-takers, with kratongs for those who hadn't made their own costing between 25 baht and 50 baht.
Perhaps the prayers were for a better year to come, with less boat-floating and more prosperity.
Loy Kratong is most of all about renewal, about hope for the future, and it was certain that many people all around Phuket, wherever ceremonies were held tonight, would be hoping for better times.
Perhaps they'd been there in previous years, but for the first time this year we noticed sky lanterns striped with the Thai flag, being send off into the dark to chase the full moon.
The parade around Phuket City was mostly for the young, students full of smiles and hopes for tomorrow, free from concerns about economics and jobs, for the time being at least.
Later at Saphan Hin public park in Phuket City it became a time for romance and for couples to send their banana leaf vessels across the dark waters, promising each other love and loyalty, and for families with young children to carry on the family traditions.
It would have been the same in Bangkok tonight, but we suspect the prayers would have been a little more fervent and the hopes more intense.
Kratongs in Patong were 300tbh lol
Posted by JS on November 12, 2011 10:28