Our morning started by waking up to pounding on the traditional large drums outside of the nearby wat… at 5:45 AM. We clambered out of bed, slipped into yesterday’s clothes and headed outside. The daily monk procession (to fill their bowls with the day’s sticky rice and collect other alms) was just starting. Since it is a festival day, many families and many groups of women had set out their mats and kneeled with feet pointing away from the monks. Flowers, copper pots and inch size handfuls of rice were dropped into the monk’s bowls. Even with the tourists zipping around trying to get a good photo, including the Japanese girls posing in front of line, the procession was picturesque. The monks were wearing the bright orange robes, barefoot with shaved heads, and consisted of two age groups, very old and under 20. The tradition is for every young man to join the monastary for three months. It is a big contrast to the western clothes, dating and scooter riding that seems to be a main occupation for the non-orange draped months of being a teenager here.
We made a loop and found that many of the nearby restaurants and shops were not opening for the morning. Then with a bit more observation, we noted that most people were headed down the street. We grabbed a good cup of coffee and a fantastic omelette baguette, then headed down the street. Considering that we were probably headed towards shopping that was geared towards the festival and not really geared towards us, we picked out two cheerful women who were dressed up and decided to see what caught their interest at the stalls. That was actually easier to decide than actually carry out. The street was overflowing with craft, clothes, balloon, noodle, music, plastic toy, fruit, dried fish, beer, ice cream, spring roll, and bucket stands. The women went shopping for children’s outfits, sunhats, helium balloons and zodiac signs. They also inspected the birds for sale in tiny pink plastic cages.
The zodiac signs were for sale everywhere and were all printed the same on basic white paper pinned to a string attached to a bamboo pole, but the similarity ended there. They were hand-colored with magic markers by kids, so your color schemes, outlining and staying within the lines varied from abstract to identifiable creatures. The paper flags are used later in the day when everyone heads across the river and builds a sand stupa, with each grain of sand representing a sin from the past year. When the sand castle is completed, the flag is placed at the top, and the Buddha calendar year is written in the sand. When the river rises to wash your stupa away, your sins are cleared away.
The birds in the pink plastic cages are also part of the festival, and the current tradition involves purchasing the trapped creatures and setting them free which gains you good karma. The younger kids were quite enthralled with this. They had a good selection of small creatures to choose from: eels, fish, rodents and birds. We sort of figured the karma might be a bit better, if there wasn’t commerce involved with the ceremony. Hopefully, the unpaid for critters will be released, as well. We figure this evening will have quite a few confused birds flying about wondering where they are.
We lost the two women after the second children’s clothing stop, but I’ve got admit the hilltribe beanie hats for toddlers are beyond cute. With a tassle or two on the round hat, a few bells and lots of bright colors, you can’t help but smile at a kid wearing one.
The fair actually turned into a fair at the distant end of the street. It took us about an hour to walk, stroll, meander through the heavy crowds to reach the other end. At that end, we found a good set of carnival rides. A ferris wheel, a huge air filled jumping castle, lots of spinning in circle things. We didn’t think the kids could be happier than getting ice cream at 9 AM, balloons, zodiac flags and a temporary pet… but I think the rides put them over the top.
So with the afternoon spent across the river (folks have set up plastic awnings, piles of chairs and full size tables), we expect the kids to be comatose by evening. Just thinking of the sand castles to be built, feasting to be accomplished, temporary pets to be freed, water fights to be strategized, and dancing and singing to be completed… can get you tired without even finishing the day.
Must be time for another noodle bowl…
