Never Boring

My description of our Laos journey is not yet finished, but this evening’s events required a different blog entry for today. More Laos to come later.

I knew that something was out of the ordinary this morning when I left for school, because our neighbors across the street seemed to be making large structures out of colored paper – always the sign of loud festivities to come. But because Loy Kratong holiday is this weekend, I assumed their activities must be somehow related.

I was then only partially surprised to arrive home from school and market shortly before 5pm, ready to make dinner and spend the evening doing household chores, to find that a party was in full swing just five feet from our gate. There were the money trees, the tables covered with sticky rice containers and bottles of whiskey, the bowls of peanuts, the crowds of laughing people. There too were the neighborhood northern Thai musicians, practicing their drums and chimes.

Knowing I would eventually be joining in one way or another, and realizing that my plans for a relatively quiet evening were of no use, I ducked into the house to quickly change clothes and unpack bags of vegetables. When Robert arrived five minutes later, Pi La from across the street came over to tell us that there would be a parade to the temple shortly after 5pm, and we were invited to join in the fun.

We scrambled to eat some snacks, put together some money to donate to the tree, and lock up the house, shouting at each other over the noise. When the regular beat of the drums started, we joined in the crowd and started walking: up our lane, along the main road, passing by students and teachers and food vendors. The women walked in front, singing and dancing, while the men trailed behind, playing music or smoking cigarettes. Both men and women carried glasses of ice which were constantly refilled with beer and whiskey, so the revelry continued all the way to the temple.

Once inside the grounds, we circumnavigated the main hall three times – still singing and dancing – before taking off our shoes and entering. When we were finally seated in the back and waiting for the monks to begin chanting, we had a chance to ask the reason for the celebration. "Oh," said Pi See, who lives behind us. "Pi La won the lottery yesterday. More than 100,000 baht. Number 5-7-9." So all the merit-making, feasting, drinking, singing, and dancing, were to show thanks for the winning ticket. [Thai people are crazy about the lottery and very intense about the process of choosing their numbers. It’s typical to celebrate a win by hosting your friends or co-workers to a meal or party. Robert went out for lunch today with the teachers from his school because one of them had won big yesterday also, so she paid for everyone.]

Since it’s Thursday night and we have a busy weekend approaching, we were thankful that the monk chanting didn’t last too long. We were soon on our way home through the dark cool night in the back of a pickup truck. We’re in for the evening, but as I type there are still a few people across the street enjoying the remnants of the event.

[The photos are actually from two previous events, but show the same parade to the wat concept.]