Loi Krathong, 28 November 2012

Today Thailand is celebrating Loi Krathong and I wanted to share my first Krathong making experience experience with you. 

Every year Thailand  celebrates a beautiful experience of Loi Krathong - probably the most picturesque and beautiful of all Thai celebrations. The annual event falls on the night when the tides are at their highest and the moon at its brightest - the full moon night of the 12th lunar month, which is usually in mid- or end of November.

In the evening, people send their hand-made or purchased krathongs (translates roughly as "floating basket") down the river after lighting the candles and incense and making a wish for the coming year.  It is said that the wish will come true if the candle remains lit until the basket passes out of sight, and also that the longer the candle remains lit the better the coming year will be.

Originally, the krathong was made of banana leaves or the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a spider lily plant. A krathong contains food, betel nuts, flowers, joss sticks, candle and coins. Nowadays kratongs are much more creative as many more materials are available. 

Yesterday we went with friends and kids to Sweet Sisters Cafe in the south of Samui, where they held Krathong making workhop. The krathong making process was a great fun, I tried it first time in my life, but the results was much better than I expected :-) 

Today most of Samui people will gather in Chaweng Lake and release their Krathongs to the water of the lake. Some people go to the seaside, but Chaweng Lake is the main point of celebrations. 

Some pictures from our krathong-making workshop:

All these beautiful krathongs were made yesterday in Sweet Sisters cafe by local Samui people, Thais and foreigners, and I think it's a great learning experience for both kids and adults. We enjoyed it a lot!!

And we will let them go tonight....

Rain, rain go away...

Rainy season is back on Samui. 3 days in the row it rains, rains and rains. My son's school is closed ( Panyadee),  the roads are not too good, and it's just very depressing in general.
Really hoping it will go away soon and sun will be back here again in  no time!

A few photos and videos from the last 3 days.

Samui Webcam and current weather

Today I would like to spread the word and introduce a great new website with Samui Webcams:

http://www.samuiwebcam.com/

It's a brainchild of my friend Matt and the quality is amazing, the best I have actually seen here.

So, now you can see Samui very clearly and in the few different points in Chaweng, Lamai, Bang Po.... Also it helps when you want to know about the weather in Samui. 

Talking about the weather - it's mostly sunny here, with some rains here and there in the previous few days, especially in the evening... yesterday was an exceptionally cloudy and rainy day ( at least in Maenam), the rain was not heavy at all, more like a drizzle, but still it was a pretty wet day. 

Today it's all nice again, some fluffy clouds out there, but still plenty of sunshine! 

Don't forget that I update the weather nearly daily on our villa booking website http://samuiconnection.com/weather/  
Even when I am not in Samui - my staff and friends supply me with the info and daily picture, so the page gets regularly updated.