Rollin' In The Deep

Loi Krathong

Stop the lights!!  I forgot to tell ye about Loi Krathong!  Get comfy and I’ll fill ya in. Loi Krathong is an annual Thai holiday whereby people make buoyant floral decorations, called Lois (loys) which they float on the water.  The purpose being to pay gratitude to the river for the rainy season.  It takes place in November during the full moon.  In NS it took place on November 17th both at the lake within the park and at the edge of the Chao Praya river. 

I had been told about the popularity of the ritual, and how Thai people use it to let their hair down and party so we booked a tuk tuk to pick us up at the new gaff nice and early…at least we hoped that’s what we asked for as our regular tuk tuk driver speaks absolutely no English except when he’s mimicking us and chuckling at our crap attempts at speaking Thai.  Sure enough he turned up with very smartly combed hair and chuckling a little bit more than usual…

He drove like his tuk tuk was on fire and pulled U-turns you wouldn’t see in any of the Fast and Furious movies.  It slowly began to dawn on us that our chauffeur had had a few ‘scoops’.  I clutched the tuk tuk for dear life as we swerved around trucks on the highway.  I vowed that if I was to get through this alive I would be good, even to Justin Bieber fans.  We arrived at the riverside where there were stalls lined up selling fruit, beer, freshly cooked food, fireworks, Lois and floating lanterns.  I safely dismounted hoping I wouldn’t encounter any JB fans; I wasn’t ready to pay my debt just yet.  I stopped at a loi stall and purchased a pretty one with pink flowers and a candle, aswell as a floating lantern.  As usual, the group of farangs attracted a lot of attention, with lots of hellos being hurled in our direction.  I think the locals were pleased to see us getting stuck in. 

We headed down to the water’s edge, lit the candles on our lois and floated them off with the current.  There’s a custom whereby people put money in their lois as an offering to the river spirits.  The Thais are very spiritual and even erect ‘spirit houses’ outside their homes in order to provide shelter for the spirits who, it is believed, can cause problems if left to roam free – rather like the custom of erecting bird houses in your garden back home.  The loi donation could be a nice little earner for river spirits if it weren’t for the pesky brutes who get into the water and wade around looking for donations to steal.  Although this is a situation which seems abhorrent to me, I live in a country with incomprehensible poverty so I shall desist judging someone who steals donations in order to feed their families.  But, should they spend the money on an iPhone then let the river spirits strike them down.

After watching my loi drift off down the Chao Praya river I made my way back up the bank where floating lanterns were being lit, along with sparklers that got attached to the bottoms.  As the hot air pulled the lanterns upwards with speed, the connecting sparklers fizzed and glowed.  The sky was so filled with light that it seemed like a theatre of fairies were dancing overhead.  The lanterns kept floating right through the evening as more people turned up with their well wishes for the river spirits.  I lit my lantern and let it fill with hot air til it gently nudged it’s way upwards bidding me farewell.  I remember trying to set these off back in Cork on my Dad’s 30^th anniversary with the most farcical results whereby lanterns were flying in all directions, towards rooftops, treetops, dogs, nothing was safe.  At the time it was pretty humorous as Dad was a bit of a joker and probably would have loved the chaos of the situation.  This time my lantern floated without a hitch, well almost.  The sparkler flew off and hissed to the ground where it was kicked away, landing right on top of my flatmate’s feet…in flip flops.  So having survived erratic tuk tuk drivers, hissing sparklers, self combusting lanterns (some weren’t so lucky) and fireworks manned by drunken locals I’d say we need to be on our best behaviour from now on…maybe even to JB himself.

Images: Sinéad Millea.