There really wasn’t much happening at the shrines today, not until the fire walking at Bang Neaw at 8pm. I did get up early to watch the procession though. Jason left first to go grab Jana from the Montri Resotel so I headed out alone. Emrys and Kristi were turning out to be heavy sleepers with little interest in morning activities so I didn’t bother banging on their door.
I set myself up at the roundabout where Montri Road and Phuket Road meet, right in the middle. I figured it was a good place to take photos. I think photos are a more powerful medium than video when it comes to truly capturing the vibe of the Ma Song. I spotted Jason and Jana walking and ran to catch up with them. I wanted to hear stories of their sea canoe trip, because I have an extra day to myself after everyone leaves and I wanted to do something cool with my time. We sat down near the roundabout and they told me their story. They had nothing but good things to say, so I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to spend my solo Wednesday on a sea canoe trip.
The procession today was intense. The part of the street where we were standing was quite narrow due to the number of motorbikes parked at the side, which pushed us out more into the street and quite close to the Ma Song. This also turned people into real assholes and everyone had their cell phones out to take pictures and video, making it hard for me to shoot photos with my real camera without getting a cellphone-clad hand ruining my shot. Luckily I am taller than most Thai people.
When the firecrackers came, it was impossible to get away from the explosions; we’d been boxed in by the motorbikes! Jason laughed when I remarked how it got a bit intense. Jana seemed to think so too but Jason said that Monday night was going to be insane. Monday is tomorrow, the last day of the festival, and it closes with hours and hours of firecrackers in the street. I have seen postcards showing the pandemonium, and it looks like a war zone. I’m stoked!
We got some food, had a nap, then went back for more food. I am probably gaining five pounds this week from all the good food. We ate dinner at this little restaurant which is a vegetariant joint even when the festival isn’t running. There we made friends with with a sweet Thai boy named Sam. Sam is only 18 years old and was very eager to practice his English speaking skills with us. He’s from Bangkok and is interested in living in an English-speaking country, but apparently English lessons are really expensive. We told him that his English was good enough and he should just go where he wants to go, and immersing himself would be the best way to learn. I don’t think we used the word “immersed” though, his English wasn’t that good.
We met up with the other three at the On On and went to Bang Neaw to see the fire-walking. There were a phenomenal amount of people there already, so we couldn’t even see the coals or the area where the ritual would happen. Then it was announced that any woman with her period, or who is in mourning, and any person who was born in the year of the rooster or goat, any of those persons should not watch the ritual. This meant that neither Jana nor I could watch. We were both born in 1981, which was the year of the rooster. I felt bad for Jana; she’d so far missed out on most of the festival because of festival customs, and now she was going to miss this too because we randomly had been born in the “wrong” year.
Jana and I decided to leave, since we couldn’t watch, and Jason came with us, apologizing. What a nice guy, since it’s obviously not his fault that our birth year is banned this year. I think jason kind of feels responsible for our group, since this is his third year here, and it’s our first year for most of us (except for Rory). The three of us just sat on our beds at the On On and had a really wonderful long conversation for a few hours until Jason walked Jana to her hotel room and he said he’d be spending the night there which meant that I could sleep naked in an empty hotel room. The hotel air conditioner seemed to either make it too cold, or not do much at all, and I don’t like being cold at night, especially when the “blankets” at the On On are just oversized beach towels. What I’m getting at is that sleeping naked is good in a hot room.
