life post gogo bars...

[francois]

Friends were at Jomtien Complex last night, Nov. 8, and reported a very active and lively scene.

[bkkmfj2648]

Friends were at Jomtien Complex last night, Nov. 8, and reported a very active and lively scene.

I can second that. I was there last night and it was heaving.

After drinking some beers at The Meeting Place in the Supertown complex - with my 2 Thai friends we bought our 3 lovely Loy Kathongs - from a lovely friend of theirs who drove down from Isaan to make 61 of them by hand. Quite a talented guy.

We then ventured over to the beach and it was totally packed and truly in a BIG festive mood.
There were plenty of those illegal flying lanterns illuminating the entire sky (I am happy to report that none of them set the condo building where I live on fire, or the nearby beautiful palm trees at the Dongtan gay beach). There were also many fireworks going off and thousands upon thousands of Loy Krathong floaties that were launched into the sea.

This was my first Loy Krathong as a new retiree living here - so I was one of those thousands, with my two Thai friends, who helped me to launch my Loy Krathong into the sea -->> BUT - we had to first follow the correct Thai ritual of:

1.) cut a piece of your hair and place it into the Loy Krathong flower piece made of banana,

2.) insert some loose coins into your Loy Krathong,

3.) light the candle that is in the center of the flowers,

4.) light the incense sticks that are also in the center of the flowers,

5.) say a prayer before launching your Loy Krathong into the water (expressing what you are happy to be relieved of - negative things - and what positive things you want to come into your life).

Then you are ready to go.

I was not dressed properly, so I had to take my shoes and socks off, and because of the shorts that I was wearing, I could not get out far enough into the water to properly launch my Loy Kratong for enough distance that it would not be washed back ashore (bad luck). There were some kids out in the water and after we launched our 3 Loy Krathongs (see below photo), they approached ours and pushed them further out to sea - and I was SO happy about that - but there was a hidden service charge - they quickly removed all of the loose coins that we had placed in our respective Loy Krathong's (see step 2 above). I became upset, but my 2 Thai friends said to me, "stay calm - these kids are very poor and they deserve what they took and you should know that it does not invalidate the above 5 steps - so our good wishes will still come to us."

I am a new retiree here - so I need to learn so much about the Thai Buddhist ways - sabai sabai....

But, for my year 2023 Loy Krathong - I will be much better prepared.

Our_3_Loy_Krathongs_2022_Jomtien.jpg

[Patanawet]

And 1A include fingernail clippings.

[bkkmfj2648]

And 1A include fingernail clippings.

Wow Patanawet - good observation - because when it came time to clip our hairs to insert them into our respective krathongs, I noticed that my 2 Thai friends were using a nail clipper to do it - so, perhaps I did not notice them clipping their fingernails. The next time that I see them, I will ask them and for my 2023 Loy Krathong I will be better prepared.