Loy Kratong

On Tuesday night Won took us to a village down the road where they had a Ladyboy Contest on. It was insane! You couldn't tell that they weren't women! It started with 12 contestants, one from each of the surrounding villages. There were two rounds. The first round they cat walked the stage and introduced themselves. In the second round they all had to do performances. Most of them did dances; one did MuayThai (thai boxing). Their high heels were nuts! And one ladyboy nearly fell over. Some of the contestents that got through to round 2 were also given money from the audience! It was a really good experience. There was also a Kratong contest! They were all insanely good and had so much detail! Especially as they were made out of banana leaves!!!

On Wednesday night Won and Somsin took us into ThaTon to send our kratongs off (we say 'ours' but they said our one wasn't beautiful and got one of the other teachers to make us one each!). We first went up to a temple so Won ans Somsin could pray. The temple was amazing; it had a ramp inside so you could walk up to the top! And the view was incredible! As there were loads of lights on for the festival and everyone was setting off fireworks and lanterns. We then made our way back down the hill and into the village were all the festives were taking place. We went down by the river to set off our kratongs. Then we bought some lanterns and Somsin got fireworks. We went up onto the bridge and tried to release our lanterns. We say tried as the first two went straight off the bridge and into the river! Which I don't think is very lucky! However our third one floated!! Somsin set off a load of fireworks, most of the time giving no one any warning and scaring the living daylights out of us! At one point Won even ran away! We walked back up to part of the temple that was lower down on the hill as the car was there, although the steps up nearly killed us! We set off another lantern there which went up really well but then caught fire and landed on the temple roof! The monks ran over but it was okay because it didn't damage anything and soon went out. Don't think we've got much luck coming our way after our lantern experience though! Then an old Thai woman came and asked us to set her lantern off with her. It was a really good night and such a good experience to go to the festival with locals and get a proper insight for it rather than just a tourist one! From a tourists point of view though, they are nuts with firecrackers and fireworks! Health and safety in the UK definitely wouldn't allow it!