Celebrating Loi Krathong!

Loi Krathong (also written as Loy Krathong) is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand and certain parts of Laos and Burma. The name could be translated as "Floating Crown" or "Floating Decoration", and comes from the tradition of making buoyant decorations (known as Krathongs) which are then floated out on a river. Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai Lunar Calendar. For us westerners, this falls in November. So this past Sunday we all went to Nai Harn beach to celebrate Loi Krathong!

 (farangs with their krathongs)

A krathong is usually decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, incense sticks, and a candle. A small coin is sometimes included as an offering to the river spirits. As we entered Nai Harn, the Thais lined the streets crafting all kinds of beautiful krathongs by hand. It was really amazing to see! They make it look so simple but you can tell by the photos they are anything but..

Some krathongs are even made out of ice-cream cones or bread! As long as it's bio-degradable, it's fair game.

After sunset everyone lights the incense and candles and launches their krathongs out onto a river, canal or a pond (in our case Nai Harn Pond), making a wish as they do so. The festival is supposed to originate from an ancient ritual paying respect to the water spirits. It was beautiful seeing all the lit krathongs drifting into the pond. Thailand has such a rich and beautiful culture, it was so cool getting to participate in it!

 

Another really cool tradition of Loi Krathong is the lighting of paper lanterns that you then release into the sky. This was my favorite part. While half the crowds were by the pond releasing their krathongs into the water, there was a stream of people coming and going from the beach releasing their lanterns into the night sky. The result was a constant stream of lanterns rising over the ocean. It was amazing!

The whole ride home on the motorbike you could see streams of lanterns floating across the sky from all over the island. It was magical! Definitely something not soon forgotten.

Karon

Friday Caitlin and I went to Karon. This might be my favorite beach on the island so far. It was gorgeous! It also had by far the most interesting people...

We were lucky enough to get chairs right behind a middle-aged man in a very tiny speedo (Matt and I could definitely have helped him w/ his swimsuit choice..) He chose to lay on a towel in what can only be described as a spread eagle position, legs toward us! Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, he proceeded to turn over and pull the swimsuit up in what we assume was an attempt to tan his "cheeks". I have to give him credit, I didn't see one tan line..

There was also a woman who walked over, plopped down in the sand in front of us, and started to roll around. She was literally doing "snow angels" in the sand. Then she got up on all fours and started crawling! I'm serious. Once again, couldn't make this up. The craziest point came when she started sliding on her butt toward the ocean, and then we saw her pick something out of the sand and eat it! Between her, mr. speedo and the woman near us who danced for an hour to no music...we decided we must've been sat in the crazies' section.

We went there with the mission "Get-Caitlin-and-Holly-tanned" and were far too successful... We ended up looking like little tomatoes. Haha woops! Ironically on Saturday when the rest of our friends were free and able to actually go to the beach with us...we were way too sunburned to be outside. We spent the day hiding in the dark and air conditioning watching TV.  #farangproblems

Patong!

On Thursday we spent the day exploring Patong. Caitlin's family has been vacationing in Patong for years and years so it was awesome to be shown around by a veteran. She even told me how her family was here during the Tsunami of 2004!! Terrifying. Thank goodness her family was all okay!

We started the day off with Starbucks, which I admit I didn't realize they had here! It really is all over...haha. It was fun to get a Peppermint Mocha frappuccino! Since they only sell it in the winter stateside, I'd never had a cold version and it's amazing (it's the little things haha). It's funny though, the Starbucks staff were all wearing Santa hats...

I just didn't have the heart to tell them they were a month and a half early. Gotta love them for trying though! They really try to make the tourists feel at home. It's sweet. There is also a lot of great (super cheap) shopping in Patong! I was able to get lots of souvenirs for the family. Although Cailtin and I had a good chuckle at all the pillows and jewelry boxes they sell that say "Paris" and "London"...why would you ever buy something with a European city on it when you're in Phuket, Thailand?! We also got massages at a beautiful place in Patong that Caitlin knew called "Let's Relax"

I got a back and shoulder massage from a woman named "Bang-On". Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up haha. Funnily enough I saw other masseuses with name tags that read "Hazel" and "Faith"..?

Afterward we got lunch at a place down one of the side roads that Caitlin and her family have been going to for over a decade! It's owned by a sweet little Thai woman, who actually knows fantastic English (this is not a common thing here). They've known each other for so long that she actually keeps Caitlin's family's DVD player for them for whenever they visit. There we had the most amazing butter and garlic fried mussels!! And delicious fried shrimp wrapped in crispy noodles.

This is actually my first seafood since I've been here (going to the hospital will make you a little skittish...haha) and I was NOT disappointed. I'm sure I'm putting all the weight I lost in hospital right back on, but it's worth every calorie haha.

This was the view from the tuk tuk on the way home.

Adventures with Caitlin!

One of Matt's wonderful teacher friends has a friend in town from South Africa for a few weeks on holiday...which means I have a partner in crime during the day! Her name's Caitlin and she's AWESOME! She's teaching me all kinds of South African words and phrases. For example, instead of saying "corn" they say "millies", and instead of "barbeque" they say "brai" (which is an Afrikaans word). For "trunk", they say "boot", and for "cool/good" they say "lacquered". It's such a unique language, I love trying to learn it!

Together we've been exploring different parts of the island everyday. On Wednesday we went to Kata and spent hours on the beach. One of the things they serve here are these delicious smoothies, and I just cannot get enough of the Banana ones! You order it and they bring it to your chair...it makes you feel pretty cool haha

I'm getting significantly better with my Thai. I can now successfully barter down the tuk tuk (taxi) drivers! I actually had one of them compliment my Thai--which is so nice because I really know very little! That is something I love about this culture, not only are they so kind but they love to teach you Thai! And they LOVE when you try and speak it to them! They don't laugh at you, they really enjoy helping you. Think the complete opposite of New Yorkers (sorry guys haha)

The Thais also have possibly the cutest children I've ever seen. We had the most adorable Thai baby in our tuk tuk on the way home from Kata.

Ao Sane

Sunday was my first real outing since the hospital and boy did it feel good to get outside! We went to this semi-secluded beach that Matt's friend Simone showed us called Ao Sane. It was beautiful!

There was also phenomenal snorkeling! We saw angel fish, eels, and bright blue starfish as big as my head! There were fish that had such crazy colors they looked almost iridescent! Matt's friend Andrea even spotted a fish with neon orange lips! And this was all just off shore. You swam in about 15 feet and looked down and it was all coral and sea life. It was really amazing!

That is a pic of Matt swimming up to this golden retriever mix that liked to just chill in the water. He was pretty cool.

Hospital Food is Universally Terrible

After a crazy night out in Patong on Friday night, we went to Laem Sing again on Saturday. It was beautiful and, as always, crazy hot.

 (One of the monkeys trying to escape)

I'd been a little overserved the previous evening, and decided it would be good to get some solid food in me. This is where I made what I believe to be my fatal mistake---I ordered a club sandwich from the beach "restaurant". First of all, it has to be noted that what they called a "club sandwich" had both eggs and cucumber on it, and the only discernible meat I could see was one slice of ham (clearly this is where I should have changed my mind). A couple hours later I started to get chills and by the time we left the beach I was really sick. By Tuesday morning I was still sick as a dog and very weak so I decided to go to the hospital. Turns out I had a bacterial infection. They hooked me up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics and kept me in the hospital for a couple days. I have to say the hospital itself was really nice!

...the food, not so much. Turns out that hospital food is universally terrible. Thai hospital food is not only pretty awful, it's also often unidentifiable! And when you're already sick, there is nothing worse than trying to guess what meat they're serving you haha.

(this can only be described as rice water)

I've also learned that Thai people love their medications. They sent me home with my own personal pharmacy...

When we got back I dumped out my bag of prescriptions and Matt goes, "Whoa there Michael Jackson." I reminded him that considering Michael's cause of death, that was not funny. (Don't worry we Googled every one before I actually took any and they're safe and, surprisingly, necessary)

I'm finally back home and, although not quite well, I am feeling MUCH better. Definitely on the up and up!

Koh Cabana Website!

The Koh Cabana website is officially live! You can now see what I've been working on for the past week...

www.kohcabana.com

(Disclaimer: we are waiting on a few higher quality images for a few of the 2(X)IST swimsuits)

 For someone who's not the best with technology, though, I have to admit I'm pretty proud :)

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