Lights, Candles, Action!

I feel like I have been celebrating for the past week! On Wednesday, I went to Bangkok for a meeting with the other Fulbright ETAs. On Thursday, we all went to the Rose Garden in Nakhon Pathom where we saw beautiful flowers, ate at a fabulous buffet, watched an elephant show, attended a traditional cultural show, interacted with animals (note the parrots), and experienced firsthand some crafts and handiwork by sculpting clay, weaving banana leaves, and cutting vegetables into flowers. Then we came back to Bangkok and had Thanksgiving dinner at the Banyan Tree, a fancy restaurant where the amazing buffet featured turkey and pumpkin pie! I ate so much I felt ill. But it was so, so good.

After a day of Fulbright meetings on Friday, I bought a train ticket to Phitsanulok to meet up with fellow ETA Brittny. My stay there was brief because I ended up in Sukhothai with McCaila (my roommate from Bangkok) for the Loy Krathong festivities. During the annual festival, Thai people put little banana leaf boats with candles (krathongs) into the water to thank the river for what it provides and to seek forgiveness for polluting it. Sukhothai is the place to be for the festival because the festivities are especially festive. We arrived at the 650+ year old ruins and walked around for a bit. In the afternoon students from around the province performed in a colorful parade that was the longest and slowest parade I have ever seen (but that's the Thai way of doing things).


In the evening as the sun went down, lights illuminated the ruins. People lit krathongs and cast them into the water. Large paper lanterns (like mini hot air balloons) were lit and set off into the night sky. I think they were better than fireworks because you could watch them float away until they looked like stars in the sky. Soon, the sky was filled with dozens of these floating orbs of light. McCaila and I watched the 'Lights and Sounds' show, which told the story of Sukhothai's history. The costumes and lighting effects were beautiful. It was crazy to see Thai people running all over the ancient buildings... I liked how visitors had such intimate access to the structures. In the US, they'd probably be roped off and behind plexi-glass or something. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and a very memorable night.

Traveling home on Sunday was another memorable experience, though not nearly as pleasant. Let's just say the 14-hour journey involved two rides from strangers, a non-air-conditioned train, and two bus rides (one of which involved standing next to the open door underneath a man with some serious B.O. while the toothless bus driver laughed like a madman as he swerved through traffic). My rock-hard bed never felt so good!