Festivals and Wishes

November 17th was the Loi Krathong festival, which revolves around water and happens on the full moon of the 11th month. So we made dinner reservations at a great Thai restaurant on one of the lakes in Sammakorn (our mooban, or village).  Our landlord and neighbor had taken us to this restaurant, as it's owned by his wife's family, and he kindly called to reserve one of the best tables for us.  

Thai people honor the spirits of the water on Loi Krathong. I learned about the festival from Wikipedia and from my 3rd grade students who were making krathongs in Thai class in the week before the festival. 

A krathong is a floating water offering made of stale bread (which can be dyed or wrapped in banana leaves) that usually has a candle, incense, and flowers.  Neil and I picked out a krathong.

Earlier in the week, I tried to persuade one of my students to make me a krathong, but then I found out that it is bad luck (for Thais there are many sources of bad luck or bad karma) if only one member of a couple makes the krathong--I imagine it is even worse luck if you have someone else's child make it for you.

When you release your krathong you make a wish for the next year.

And the fish enjoy the extra bread :)

The Loi Krathong festival coincides with another northern Thai festival, Yee Peng.

Thai people tend to be very inclusive when it comes to religious beliefs.  Thailand is a country, which is 95% Buddhist and yet also embraces other spiritual beliefs and practices that are not related to Buddhism, such as spirit houses.

Tangent:

Spirit houses are often found in private homes and are also located in places of business.  People make daily offerings of flowers, food, and incense to please the spirits of that home or business. Additionally, Thais who are Catholic sometimes have a spirit house dedicated to the Virgin Mary with her statue.  Instead of drawing lines between religions and beliefs, Thais often connect them instead. 

This is all to say that, despite the fact that we are in the south of mainland Thailand, residents of our neighborhood were also celebrating Yee Peng.  Though compared to Chaing Mai, and other areas in the North, our local celebration was quite small. 

Throughout dinner we watched lanterns float up in the sky from the other side of the lake, from other lakes a few kilometers away, and from the restaurant's dock.  This adorable family released a lantern that hadn't burned for quite long enough yet, and it floated into the lake instead of over it. On second attempt, their lantern launched successfully. 

The sky was also punctuated with fireworks from near and far, and we saw lanterns with fireworks attached. They looked like jellyfish floating through the sky.  We opted for the basic lantern model.  With patience and a few close calls from the wind, we released our lantern which floated over the lake and past our neighborhood, carrying with it our wishes for next year.

Running a Race Thirteen Degrees above the Equator

Signing up for a race when I live just thirteen degrees above the equator might not have been the smartest idea, but I figured that a 10K wouldn't (or shouldn't) kill me. Luckily I had lots of great company during my training, as ten of my colleagues registered for the 10K, half marathon (I wasn't feeling that crazy), and marathon (borderline insane).

For me the training was easy, two to three runs a week usually 7-8K, which is the distance from school to our house via "backstreets".  The marshy land in our area doesn't lend itself to actual back roads, but it is traversed by a network of khlongs, or canals, which have elevated sidewalks that function as roads for scooters and as a running path for me.  (Side note: I shared in an earlier post, that I nearly drove a bicycle off an elevated sidewalk and into flooded rubber plantation fields. Therefore, I am certain that if I tried to drive our scooter on the khlong path that both the scooter and I would be in the water.)

Running with friends and running a one way route (I couldn't cut a run short when the route was linear instead of a loop...I simply wouldn't have be home yet) was great for me.  I also got to observe the khlong community, which is mostly Muslim, and exists in parallel to my school and community. I also got to see many more animals that otherwise I would not encounter.  Farms that are tiny by American standards had goats, chickens, ducks, cows, and water buffalo (which were sometimes being herded to a grazing area or wading in the khlong).  There were also herons and, on occasion, monitor lizards. 

This small monitor lizard staked claim to the path for a few minutes before finally jumping into the water and letting us pass.

On the weekend of the race, we stayed downtown near the start line. This was especially important for those who we're running the full and half marathons as their races started at 2am and 4am respectively. 

The race started and ended outside the walls of the Thai royal family's Grand Palace.

The 10K started at 6am and was crowded from start to finish (even more crowded than Philly's Broad Street Run as the course was more narrow and there was no staggering at the start--everyone running (or walking) the 10K and 5K started (or tried to start) simultaneously).  

My friend, Darcy, and I started the race together assuming we wouldn't find our other friends among the tens of thousands of runners. We were pleasantly surprised when we found Karli and Amy about 2K into the race!

Running a new route, through a part of Bangkok I haven't explored yet was great. Some sights were familiar, such as monks walking barefoot to collect food from Thai Buddhists who are making daily merit offerings to the monks.

Other sights were new and reminded me that I still have lots to explore in this City of Angels [Bangkok's official name is the longest name of a city--continue reading--The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.]. 

This was the pretty view I enjoyed as we approached the finish, back outside the Grand Palace. 

At the end of the race we were rewarded with our choice of a fish or pork burger from the ubiquitous McDonalds, where Ronald McDonald wais, or acknowledges you with a bow, outside every location.

Yes. I do sweat that much now that I live in a tropical climate. Note to self: put black running shorts on my Christmas list. 

I skipped the pork burger, saving room for the New York style brunch we had planned for after the race.  The avocado toast and steak and eggs with asparagus at TriBeCa Restobar were worth the wait.