Emily in Thailand

We were waken up by Uncle, to join him for his morning walk. Poor Mathias, even though he stayed up really late the previous night to do his (very cheem) assignment, he wasn’t spared. He was called “Uan, Uan” by his Dad. Uan means fat. Last minute, I decided to join them for their walk too. (I stayed up to accompany Mathias too) They couldn’t walk their usual route because it was muddy from the rain the night before, so we changed route and walked by the side of the road, one of those roads that don’t really have vehicles. I didn’t expect it, but it was a 2 (freaking) hours walk! Good exercise, aug-kam-lang-gai (exercise).

My favourite part of the walk was, there was a yellow chick popping out of nowhere… And suddenly, a pink and red one followed along! They were hopping freely and quite fast, I couldn’t catch them! But they were adorable. Poor thing though, what they had to go through to get that colour.

Back to the weekend house, Uncle made pasta! I’ve tried making pasta sauce once before (not the ready-made in a jar kind), at Ember’s, and it was not bad. But we had to add lots and lots of sugar to get some taste. Ember said that Singapore’s tomatoes not very sweet. Haha. Well, the one Uncle made was full of taste & yummy, no need to add sugar at all leh. Cut up some tomatoes, onions and garlic, add cooking oil and some ketchup & minced meat, and viola. Next time, will try to cook with Ember again using this receipe.

At around 5+pm, me and Mathias set off to the city for the Candle Festival pre-celebrations. It’s exactly like the day of the celebration itself, just probably with less candles. I like the music and the entourage of dancing folks. I joined in and danced too! Haha! Anyway, it was basically a parade of huge intricately-designed wax sculptures, and they are reused over and over again every year. Some are carved out wax, some are moulded wax assembled together (like the last row, first picture). I think there’s some kind of most-beautiful scultpure competition going on, because I read that every year, last year’s winning sculpture will lead the parade.

Mathias’ family didn’t even bother to go for the parade, Uncle said he’s seen it for decades. Apart from the candle display, there were pasar malam-like shops, all selling the SAME things. Don’t know how they do business. After an hour or so, it got quite boring because there was nothing much but just lots of figurines made from wax. So I went to the nearby park to play some basketball. Haha.

The Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival, the most elaborate of the traditional parading of candles to wats (Thai: แห่เทียน hae thian), is held in Ubon Ratchathani, Isan, Thailand, around the days of Asanha Puja (which commemorates the Buddha’s first sermon) and Wan Kao Pansa (which marks the beginning of vassa).

At the start of the Lenten period, it is traditional in preparation for the rainy season for the devout to donate to items for the personal use of monks, and of candles to dispel gloom in their quarters and elsewhere within the wat. The latter is often the core event of many village celebrations, but is at its most elaborate in the Ubon Ratchathani version, which nowadays is a major event both for residents and for tourists: giant candles are paraded through the town, each representing a local temple, district or other institution. The more elaborate versions are accompanied by scenes of Hindu and Buddhist mythology sculpted in wood or plaster and coated with wax. Of course, these candles are never burned.

Above text taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubon_Ratchathani_Candle_Festival