‘Tis the Season to be Jolly (?)

The evening of Thailand’s Festival of Light (or Loy Krathong) which falls on the night of the full moon in November, is one of the most picturesque festivals in the whole of Thailand. It’s when people gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respect to the goddess of water by releasing small and beautiful ‘rafts’ decorated with candles, incense and flowers and banana leaves onto the water.

And of course, in common with every other festival in Thailand, it’s an opportunity to eat mouth watering street food, hunt for bargains and generally have a good time.

But of course, the main purpose for both young

and old(er)

is either to thank the goddess of water (Mae Khongkha) for the abundant supply or apologise for using too much or contaminating it!

A more international and traditional celebration followed a few days later on Nokky’s birthday

where a good time was had by all in our bar/restaurant.

Buying a birthday present for Nokky is easy as a) she much prefers to buy something for herself and b) all she ever wants is…gold, the buying and selling of which is very big business here as it holds its value much better than, say, diamonds and thus much easier to sell if times get tough! Not the most romantic reason for gift buying but the Thais- perhaps surprisingly – are generally more practical than romantic!

And then there was the football World Cup. In order not to be seen to be too partisan, we decorated our bar/restaurant with some of the flags of the competing finalists. We had a few enthusiasts who watched most – if not all- of the games and had a full house for the final when, towards the exciting finish, it was standing room only. What fun we had!

On a much quieter note, this little fellow (a Kingfisher, perhaps?) injured himself the other day, having flown directly into our bedroom window. We managed to feed him some water and a bit of food (insects) but really thought he was on his last legs as he sat almost motionless on our terrace for close to 10 hours before suddenly and very unexpectedly, taking off.

The beautiful pink water lilies are in abundance at this time of year – on every small pond, canal, lake and river. They are best viewed quite early in the morning which is not ideal photography time for me. But I managed to catch these before the flowers shut up shop for the day on a very small pond close to our house.

It is, I believe, the shortest day tomorrow . So, to remind those of you living in colder climes that there are warmer times ahead, this is where I plan to relax reading my book this afternoon.