Loi Krathong

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

As said before, yellow is the colour of the King and Queen of Thailand. Last night was a full moon and time to celebrate Loi Krathong. Very very many people have been dressed in yellow these past few days and yesterday the sky train was full of young men from a school all with the same yellow polo shirt. They were going down to trhe river to make a floral offering to the Water God, this to apologise for polluting the water, apparently (according to the Bangkok Post).

Richard and I had split up for an hour or two and we were due to meet at the ferry terminal by the Oriental Hotel. We had been there yesterday and it had been almost empty, but now it was absolutely teeming with people all with their floral offreings, and in the meantime stall workers were working frantically to make new ones for sale for about a euro.

Eevntually havving made our own offering and seeing the candle go out the minute it floated on tyhe water we decided to take the water taxi back home. However, little did we realise that all the water taxis were being used to ferry people under the bridge to make their own offereings and come back. It was quite an experience, watching the people light up, make a prayer and la\unch their offering.

We had a Heineken on the street and caught a taxi (cheaper than a tuk-tuk) back to where we are staying and had dinner here.