Festivals & beaches

Hi ya!

It hard to believe (and accept) that I have only four weeks left in this paradise island. It has gone by way too fast! Here’s something I’ve been up to lately. :)

Vegetarian festival

One of the biggest festivals in Phuket is the Vegetarian Festival of the Chinese community here. It lasts for about a week and they believe that during this time abstinence from meat and alcohol etc. will bring them good health. They also do body piercing (not their bellybuttons –Google it and you get the idea) and other very painful stuff because apparently they cannot feel pain as mediums of gods – yeah, right. 

We were at Phuket Town the last day of the festival when they send of their gods with fireworks (which figures since it is a Chinese celebration). There was a kind of parade where men were carrying small altars and people were throwing firecrackers at them (yes, AT them). I think I saw more fireworks during that one night that I have in my life altogether. I was really glad I thought of to bring my earplugs because the noise was just incredible. At the point when we decided to go home, the streets were covered with red paper from the firecrackers and a there was a heavy smoke everywhere that made it hard to breathe. I added some photos but you really have to be there to understand just how crazy it all seemed.

The celebration was centered around the Town's clock tower

Krabi

We spend last weekend relaxing on Railay Beach Krabi. We arrived there Friday morning (about a three hour ride from Phuket by a minibus and about 15 minutes on a long tail boat) and headed right to the beach, which was one of the best ones I’ve seen yet. On Saturday we went kayaking nearby and afterwards we took a long tail boat to Boda Island where we spend few hours snorkeling and laying on the beach. There were some really nice corals there and a lot of fish, including clown fishes (littl

e Nemos, my favorites). Sunday evening we came home after yet another day at the beach. I managed to burn my back entirely (first time in Thailand, I think that’s an achievement of some kind), I guess 3 days of sun and an oil back massage on the beach was just too much. :D

Lots of moneys at Krabi willing and able to steal your food. :)

Raylay Beach at sunset

Boda island and speedboats

Raylay Beach

Raylay viewpoint resort - only one scorpion in the bathroom. ;)

On Monday there was yet another festival, this time the Loy Krathong. It is a Buddhist festival that is celebrated every year around Thailand on the full moon of the twelfth month - obviously not according to the western calendar. On a side note I might add that we’re living the year 2552 here in Thailand. :) Anyway, during this festival people make or buy Krathongs (small rafts on banana leaves with flowers and candles) and send them off. Apparently his symbolizes getting rid of negative things and bringing a fresh start. They also send lanterns to the sky (very beautiful) and of course even this festival comes with fireworks.

Krathongs

This week I’ve been again really busy with school stuff. I had a presentation on Tuesday, a Thai language test on Thursday and a case study on the pharmaceutical industry for Business on Friday. All this has taken a lot of time since I’ve decided that I am here also to study not just to sunbathe. You can get through the courses with a lot less effort if you don’t care about grades (or learning useful things). And you can always opt to take less than the 4 courses maximum, for example Thai Cooking and Thai Language is a pretty light package for someone who’s not interested in the other subjects.

On Saturday we went on a whole day trip which included white water rafting, elephant ride and ATV ride. It was a bit too touristy for my taste but I did enjoy rafting and seeing the elephants. I don’t recommend seeing elephant or monkey shows however because we found them to be more oppressive than fun

Yesterday we spend the day watching beach volleyball tournament finals and in the evening we did some shopping in the night mart near Phuket Town. You can buy practically anything there and the prices are ok.

Next weekend we’re heading to Singapore for some Singapore Slings. Flights cost us about 80 Euros from Air Asia, not too bad in my opinion. I’ll tell you how that went next week. :)

-Anu