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Thailand is a land of enchanting and exotic tastes for foreign visitors as I was to learn when I skilled the Water Festival of Loi Kathong on the island of Ko Chang.

Ko Chang

In October 2003, the travel bug seriously bit me. The symptoms led me to sell my company, pack a little backpack with needed items and roll into Los Angeles International Airport with a significant credit card and an attitude. A couple of days later, I was in Thailand and headed for the island of Ko Chang, located close to the border with Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand.

Ko Chang is a heavily forested island with little towns complete of beach huts. This is what I was precisely what I was after. Spending days lounging in the sun and contemplating my navel. Sadly, I soon skilled the local bacteria, which was not what I was after.

Since I had rented my beach hut for a week with payment in advance, the family members running the spot looked me upon favorably. They took pity on me and I was soon expanding fat on Tom Yom Kung and other soups and curries. After 4 days, I had finally kicked the bug and felt halfway human. This was good news as it was the night of the full moon water festival.

I had heard of complete moon festivals in Thailand. For hard partying tourists, this was apparently the night the massive beach parties happened. In Ko Chang, it was a little various as the night was tailored to the actual Thais, not tourist.

The Loi Kathong Festival occurs each and every full moon. Offerings are provided to appease the water spirits. These offerings come in the form of banana leaf bowls with flowers, fruit, candles and incense. The candles and incense are lit and every person heads down the beach and begins putting them in the water. It is 1 of the much more amazing light shows you will ever see and beats Las Vegas hands down. Thousands, and I mean thousands, of small lights bobbing on the surface of the smooth ocean.

After the bowls comes one of the most visually remarkable issues Ive ever seen. Absolutely everyone is familiar with the paper lanterns used in Asia. Generally, they come in the form of a rectangle form with a bamboo or light wire frame. Really popular with college students because they are low cost and appear better than a bare light bulb.

For the festival, Thais would take these paper lanterns and close off the prime. They would then affix a little this paper plate to the bottom with a candle on it. Light the candle, wait for the heat to do its operate and they had an instant hot air balloon. Once the lanterns could shakeology results float, you basically let go and off the slowly went more than the ocean. It was a sight to see as rent vince delmonte fitness there had been thousands of them floating muscle maximizer more than the water.

As the festival wound down, the ocean had been transformed. The air was complete of gracefully floating lanterns even though the water itself was dotted with slowly bobbing points of light.

If you intend to travel to Thailand, make sure you schedule your trip about a complete moon. It is a scene youll in no way neglect.