Phuket Trip Day Four Continued!

My last post was the background information about this unique festival, so this post will mainly be pictures and my personal opinions on the festival.  Some of the things that I saw made me nautious, and there was only one thing that I saw that made me turn away because I felt sick.  The only reason I felt sick was because they stopped right beside me to "oil" the knife (I'll show you a picture and explain in further detail). 

 Our day started out by pouring drinks that would eventually be handed out to the people that were taking part of the procession.  We served coke, green pop (not sure what flavor it is, it doesn't really have a flavor as far as I can tell...), orange pop, strawberry fanta, and sprite.  It was a group effort to get all of the cups filled.  Haha. 

 The next task was handing out drinks, which you can see Courtney (one of my exchange student friends from the USA) is doing.  I got to do this too, but I spent more time taking photos, because there were lots of people fighting to hold the trays.  I didn't mind too much because it allowed me to take photos. :)

 The man with the red apron on has "shish-ka-bob" sticks in his mouth.  I'm not sure what they are called, but this was one of the most "popular" things that they stuck in their mouths.  He only has a few in his mouth, but I saw some that had over 20.  It was pretty amazing to think that they stuck this all in their mouth. 

 This is another person with the "shish-ka-bobs" in his mouth, but his have devorations on the end, which weigh more.  Also the sticks in his mouth were thicker, and looked more like blades.  The men that are in white that surround "devotees" are there for medical purposes...and their are a lot of them.

 This particular man has two spikes through his cheeks.  On the end of the spikes, he has two wooden ship models.  The models were pretty cool to look at, but I don't think I will be sticking those spikes in my mouth, it looks extremely painful. 

 The guy that made me feel sick.  Well this was my first "up-close-and-personal" look at what it looks like when you shove these things in your mouth.  They had to sit him down right infront of our stall in order to oil up his knife.  If they don't oil the object that is in your mouth, your cheeks will start to heal over, which the object in your mouth, causing problems later when you try to take them out.  We got to watch them oil the knife, and then wiggle it around for a bit.  It was pretty gross. 

 The first of the firework chairs.  This is one of the chairs that would have fireworks chucked at it.  As you can tell, most of the people are ecently covered, in order to prevent burns caused by the firecrackers.  People would either throw the firecracker from the crowd, and hope that it hits the chair, and not the people, or you could walk up and stick your cracker in the chair, and the people would shake it so it blew up faster. 

 For all you nature lovers, how would you like to stick a few palm leaves in your mouth? There were a few plants that we saw being put in the mouths. 

 Watching the firecrackers go off right outside our stall.  This was extremely loud, and there were a few times where I had to plug my ears because it was so loud.  We were told to wear our sunglasses, because pieces of the firecrackers would fly off and smack us in the face.  The noise was deafening, and a few of the people on exchange had to leave to a different place because it was too loud.

 Normally you would see people using umbrellas to protect from the rain.   This man was using them to be part of his spiritual cleansing.  The umbrella's were pretty :) but having them shoved through my cheecks..no thanks.

 If you weren't going to stick things in your mouth, there were other options that we saw.  Some people would rub their tongue against an axe, esentially "splitting" the tongue (really gross, lots of blood), or they would do what these people would do.  Ever x amount of steps (I didn't count) they would stop walking, kneel down, and smack their back and front with the axe...

 This is just a picture of the firecrackers going off on one of the chairs.  The street was an absolute mess after the procession went through...lots of firecracker debris. 

 This unique fellow has stuck a skewer through his tongue, and has pierced his body in various places.  His arms were all covered in feathers, and they were attached by "threading" them through the skin.  Somewhat like sewing...but with skin.  I'm not sure how to describe what this man had done, but he had it all up and down his arms, face, and back. 

 A guy with a gun through his cheeks. 

 This is the stall that was next to ours.  It was more like a shrine.  The man would pick fruit up off of the table, and give it to one of the people that were surrounding him as a gift.  He had the "skewers" pierced through his skin as well (the man in the picture two up, had the same thing done, just in greater numbers).

 Our Rotary Stall.  We had a lot of fruit that we were offering to the devotees.  The round green fruit that is at the bottom of the picture is called Som-oh, (we call it Pomello), then there was Rambutan (the little red things), pineapples, banana's, oranges, watermelon...lots of fruit.  We didn't actually have that many devotees come to our stall because there were a lot of places that they could have gone. 

At the end of the procession, we burned Chinese money as a thank you to the gods.  So this is me burning the money.  It's not real money though, haha we wouldn't waste that.

There is more to my day, but I will stick it in another post. 

Phuket Trip Day 4!

This is actually going to be some background information about the Vegetarian Festival in Thailand.  This was the main reason that we came to Phuket, but it has some pretty strange traditions. 

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar.  It is believed that the Vegetarian Festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite.  During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making.  Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song" (Not my words: http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/index_eg.htm) 

The History of the Festival:

Phuket's Vegetarian festival ( Jia Chai in the local Hokkien Chinese dialect) began in 1825, when the govenor of Thalang, Praya Jerm, moved the island's principal town from Ta Reua in Thalang District to Get-Hoe in Kathu District, where there were tin mines and Chinese miners.  Kathu was then still covered by jumgle and fever was rife.  It happened that a traveling opera comany (called ngiu in Thai or pua-hee in Hokkien dialect) came from China to perform for the miners. 

When the whole company grew sick from an unnamed malady, they kept to a vegetarian diet to honor two of the emperor gods, Kiew Ong Tai Teh and Yok Ong Sone Teh.  The sickness afflicting the opera troupe then disappeared.  This greatly interested the people of Kathu, who asked how it was done.  The answer came that the rituam vegetarianism with its attendant ceremonies have been the cause, with the result that people embraced the faith entusiastically.  Thus the festival began: starting the first evening of the ninth lunar month, it continued until the ninth evening; the aim was to bring good luck to individuals as well as to the community.

It later happened that one familiar with the festival colunteered to return to Kansai, in China, where he invited the sacred Hiao Ho-le or Hiao Ian (incense smoke) and Lian Tui (name plaques), which have the status of gods, to the ceremonies, returning to Phuket on the seventh night of the ninth month.  The people, upon hearing of his arrival, went in procession to Bang Niao Pier to bring him and his sacred cargo back.  this was the origin of the processions that figure so greatly in the festival. 

The afternoon before the festival begins, a great pole at each temple is raised, called the Go Teng pole, with which the gods are invited to descend.  At midnight the pole is hung with nine lanterns, signalizing the opening of the festival.  Two important gods are also invited down at midnight to preside over the ceremonies; these are Yok Ong Hong Tae and Kiew Ong Tai Tae. 

Aside from this, there are other ceremonies throughout the fest, notably: invocation of the gods Lam Tao, who keeps track of the living, and Pak Tao, who keeps track of the dead; processions of the gods' images; and feats of the Ma Song-like bathing in hot oil, bladed ladder climbing, and fire-walking.  The festival ends with merit making ceremonies at each temple (sadoh kroh) and the send-off of the gods on the last night (when fireworks are at their most impressive). 

Ma Song, or entranced horses, are devotees whom the gods enter during the fest.  They manifest supernatural powers and perform self-tortures in order to shift evil from individuals onto themselves, and to bring the community good luck.  ma Song fall into two categories: those who, having had an intimation of impending doom, want to extend their lives; and people specifically chosen by the gods for their moral qualities.

Throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded, especially during ceremonies.  It is held that the louder they are, the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits. 

Participants in the fest keep to a strict vegetarian diet for a varying number of days, usually no less than three.  This they do to make themselvves strong in mind and body; they refrain from all vice, eating animal flesh, and killing animals.  The festival thus promots good hygiene, brightness, and inner peace.  (not my words, http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/phuketvegetarian-eng/phuketvegetarian-history.htm )

That's a little bit of background information so that you can somewhat understand why these people do what they do to themselves.  Some of the things that I saw made me squeemish, and at times I got extremely grossed out.  I am glad their gods were in them cause I don't think I could ever do that to myself.  You will see pictures in a bit.

The next few pictures were not taken by me, but they are courtesy of Google.  I will have my pictures up in the next one, but these will be better than mine :P

  This was taken in 2004, where the guy had put a bike through his cheecks.  This is real, not photoshopped at all.  The people had lots of stuff stuck in their mouths.  Slightly gross.

Another person with a bit thing in his mouth.  The biggest thing that I saw was a beach umbrella.  Like a full sized, gigantic one.  That was pretty disturbing. 

Okay.  I thought I'd add some pictures to this one so that it wasn't all text, but the next one will have my pictures and some more writing about my personal opinions on what went down on this day. 

Phuket Trip Day Three!

October 12th, 2010. 

Today we were going to explore some of the other islands that surround Phuket Island.  My day started out pretty interestingly.  Pa-Dee (the lady looking after us) got lost a few times on our way to Ratachan Pier, but we found it eventually.  The boat that we rode on was extremely nice.  The seats were plushy, and reclined a bit, and ooh, it was awesome.  The only downside was that the water was a little rough. 

We docked at Phi Phi Island.  There are two islands, but we only got to explore one because the water was too rough and the people worried about us going out and getting seasick on our trip over to the other island, so we only stayed on one island (the main one.)

 Our first  (and really only) stop of the day was snorkling, and this is the location that we snorkled at.  It wasn't the best snorkling that I have ever done, but its definately not the worst either.  There was a bigger variety of fish (compared to my first snorkling adventure in Trang), and there were more coral.  We were given the option of going on an hour long snorkling tour, or spending the entire day on the island.  I knew that I would have a few hours on the island after the snorkling, and I really didn't feel like shopping, so I chose to go and do the snorkling.  There was four of us who went snorkling, everyone else stayed on the shore. 

A close up look at where we snorkled.  The water was teh perfect temperature, not to warm, but not cold at all.  It was a really beautiful location.  The person in the picture is Kimberly (the german girl).  It was awesome. 

 Ahh! The wonders of having an underwater camera.  It was quite funny listening to some of the girls talk about the "spikey things in the water".  In other words...sea urchins.  They couldn't figure out what they were, and they were tempted to swim down and touch them to see what they were.  I told them that they probably didn't want to touch them cause they could be poisenous (I coudn't remember about that) and explained to them what they were.  Needless to say, I felt very smart after that conversation
. 

 The water was a bit murky, making it hard to take good photos, but this is one type of coral that we saw a lot of at this particular island.  I hope that you can see that it is a vibrant blue, but in real life (not in a picture) it is brighter and really beautiful to look at.

 One of the little fishies swimming around the coral.  There were quite a few different types of fish floating around, but the main ones that we saw were like the fish we saw in Trang (the first set of snorkling pictures on my blog.)  We were given bread and fruit rinds to throw into the water so that we could have the fish swim around us, it was pretty cool. 

 This is a common scene for me now.  These are the fishing boats that all of the fishermen use.  I was shocked to see so many though.  I am used to seeing a few, at most 10, but there were lots of these...like over thirty! They were all just lining the beach.  I didn't spend to much time at the beach because it wasn't a very clean beach.  Anyways, I thought this was a cool picture.

 This is the beach where we spent a little time (the dirty one in the picture above.)  The only dufference is that this is a different section of the beach where it was cleaner, and a lot less boats.  You can see (not very well, but kind of) the contrast between the locals and the tourists here.  The locals have these cool little fishing boats, and the tourists get the fancy speedboats that can be seen in the background.  Not all of the speedboats are tourists though, some of them are dedicated to snorkling and diving.  I checked out some of the diving, but I didn't have enough time on the island to go diving, or to even find out whether the div

 Another view of all of the boats lining the beach.  These boats are extremely loud and ditry.  When I say dirty I don't mean in the sense that they have garbage everywhere, but in the sense that they are really bad for the environment.  They spit out black smoke, and its pretty bad.  But they are quite fun to ride in :)

 Food.  One of the most amazing desserts I eat here is called Loti, or Roti, depending on who you talk to.  Some people (most people actually) don't pronounce "r" and they pronounce it as "l", so at times it can get confusing for me to decipher what they are saying.  Anyways.  Roti is a thin layer of pastry covered in sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and you can put stuff inside.  I have had banana, egg, and have them plain.  The other people here had Nutella put in theirs, but I don't really like Nutella so mine was plain :). 

 This is the lady cooking the Roti for us.  We ordered a lot...5 plates of Roti...but it was soo good.  We also got smoothies here.   Mine was Pineapple, mango, and someother fruits.  A-roi mak mak! (Very delicious!) haha. 

 This is a sign that I found amusing on the way out to the boat.  It was a really cool sign though, and it got the idea across.  In case you can't read it it says : Warning Our Body Is Not A Life Buoy.  Haha it was quite funny. 

So that was our day at Phi Phi Islands.  I had gotten a bit seasick on the way back, which wasn't enjoyable, but it didn't deter from the day at all.  It was just slight bump in the road. 

Phuket Trip Day Two!

Today, October 11th, we were going to go canoeing.  Everyone thought that that meant that we would be going in a canoe, and paddling ourselves around the islands for a bit.  We were wrong.  Turns out we were going to be sitting in a boat, while another person paddled for us.  It was slightly disappointing because a few of us actually wanted to do some paddling, but they were okay with sitting there and watching the scenary. 

 Here is a few of my friends getting into their boat.  This was their idea of us canoeing.  I didn't really mind because I was feeling lazy, and really didn't want to go paddling for an entire day. 

 Some of the other exchange students heading into the cave.  It was pretty dark, but because I am the amazing person with a waterproof camera, I had been named photographer, so I took quite a few pictures.  Everyone thanked me for takingthe pictures though, it felt good :)

 PeeBoy-our Rotary Guy, who's pretty much like our chaperone...showing us some of the formations that were within the cave.  It was quite amusing, because every formation that he showed us would have a different name, and then he would make up a little story about it.  Most of the time his stories didn't make much sense, but it was still fun to listen to. 

Another one of the formations that is in the cave.  The pictures from inside the cave turned out a bit grainy, due to the fact that it was pitch black, and I was truly just pointing the camera in different directions, and hoping I'd get a cool picture out of it.  Most of the time I did, but I do have a few pictures that I have no clue what they are.  :)

This is a picture outside the entrance to the cave.  The boat that is directly in front of the camera is filled with Fernanda, Courtney and Anna (Brazil, US, US respectively).  We were hoping to see some monkeys that frequent the shores (hanging from the trees) so that we could feed them banana's, but sadly we didn't see any.  I guess they were hiding from the rain.

Another scenary picture of where we were, this time showing the boats that we rode on. The one that we took is the big red one in the center.  I am still amazed at how some of the trees can literally grow out of the rock! 

After a splashing fight that went a little overboard, the guide to Anna, Fernanda, and Courtney's boat decided to treat them to the water, and promptly flipped their boat.  Fernanda wasn't impressed, she wanted to stay dry, but the rest of us had a good laugh. 

Our second stop of the day was at this series of islands.  There were lots of little nooks and crannies to explore, and the weather was co-operating.  It wasn't raining as of right now, but it wasn't unbearably hot either.  It was just right.  We weren't the only boat at this location, actually every location we went to there were a lot of boats...anyways, we traveled around here, and spent about an hour here. 

Looking down one of the little waterways between the islands.  There was a little fishing vessel there (the boat in the center of the picture) and a very nice yaht  (the white boat to the  right hand side of the picture).  I don't know what all to say about this picture, it was mainly scenary. 

Haha Another scenary picture, but this time its showing the jagged rocks that were on the side of the island.  There were lots of these little hangings everywhere, and some of them were pretty ig, hanging down twenty feet, and creating strange shapes.

 So within the little area that we were chilling in, we came across a couple of fishermen.  They were fishing for crab, so technically they were crabbing.  They also were catching these suckers (there is a better picture lower down).  Now I'm not totally sure what these are, but they are related to the horseshoe crab.  I took this picture to try and get a shot of the crab, but ended up getting an awesome picture of this ladies discusted face. Hehe.

 Here is a picture of the two fishermen, and their boat.  They were showing us their catch, crabs, and a few fish, but not much.  They fish by net, not fishing rod.  How it works is they have this big net that has weights on the end of it, and they throw it in the water, then they pull a rope causing the net to fold up on itself, catching the fish.  Ingenious, I know :).

 Okay, so here is a picture of me and the horseshoe type crab.  They are actually pretty ugly, and look like they belong in prehistoric times, and not in the modern day times.  Haha.  The other Emily said that she had eaten it before, and that it wasn't all that good.  I have yet to eat it, so I don't know, but I have learned not to judge the food based on other peoples tastes, and wait to eat it myself. 

 So our next stop was at this set of islands, and it was pretty awesome.  This area is famous for the Thai people because of the slanted rock wall that you can see in the background of this picture.  It has a very long story that tells about how it is good luck for the people, or something like that.  I didn't totally understand the translation, so I can't really pass on this information.  Either way, it was really cool to see. 

 For all of the James Bond fans out there reading my blog, do you recognize this island? Supposedly it was featured in one of the James Bond movies, and is now named..James Bond Island.  Pretty unique name eh? Well we were given the option to go around the island, or to swim out to James Bond Island, but we decided to walk around, because I didn't feel like swimming at that particular moment.  We wandered around to the backside of the island, where we found this cute little beach.  There wasn't much to see there, but it was really cute.  We met a Thai man, who proceeded to tell us his life story, about how he has a granddaughter in the US (we had told him where we were from), and how he went to technical school, and all of these details.  It was really funny.  He then got a group picture with us so that he could show his granddaughter.  We asked him if he golfed (because he was using a putter as a walking stick) and that made him launch into another story about how he was trying to be Tiger Woods, and ended up spraining his ankle, and how he wasn't going to let his putter go to waste, so he would use it as a walking stick.  It was one of the most random conversations I have ever had with a man, but it was all in good fun. 

 I couldn't go to this tourist trap, and not take the cliche touristy picture, so here it is.  The very touristy picture of me holding James Bond Island in the palm of my hands.  :)

Our next stop of the day was at this little swimming hole.  To get in the water, we had to jump off the boat....Okay, so we didn't actually have to, but we were supposed to.  Emi (from Japan) wanted someone to go with her, so I volunteered (even though I was scared to jump) and we counted to three.  As you can see from the picture, the splash is her hitting the water, and the chicken in brightly blue shorts on the second level is me.  It took some of the guys behind me pushing, (and like putting a lot of effort into making me let go of the railing) and then finally some coxing to finally get me to jump.  Hehe.

 This is the group of us that went swimming in the little swimming hole.  The water was nice and warm, and the beach was sandy.  It was quite fun. 

 Now this was another experience for me, that required a tiny bit of persuasion.  We had to climb up a log, scale a rock wall, and then crawl over a rock wall in order to get to the rope swing.  The water wasn't very deep, so you had to propell yourself off to the side so that you would land in deeper water.  If you let go too soon, you ran the risk of being too shallow, but if you held on too long, you ran the risk of hitting the wall.  Needless to say, I was slightly nervous. 

 My camera battery had died by the time that it was my turn, so I thought I would post a picture of one of the other kids jumping.  As you can kind of tell, you had to propell yourself way the heck out there in order for it to work.  I had to have a little boy (about 12 years old) show me how to do it, while my friends stayed in the water, yelling encouraging things to me.  Truthfully I yelled Holy Fudgesicles, which earned me a few strange looks, and a lot of laughter. 

 This is an overview from the boat about where we went swimming.  Beautiful location :) I  had a blast here, and didn't even get sunburnt...thats because it was cloudy and rainy, but still!! NO SUNBURN!! Haha. 

 This is on the way out from the swimming hole, with another boat heading in.  I thought it was really cool (the rock formations) so I decided to take a picture and show you.  There were these formations everywhere along the different islands.  Very pretty.

 As we were leaving the swimming hole, the rain started to come.  We could see it earlier (there would be dark gray parts to the sky, and you could actually see where the rain was falling, and where it wasn't).  As we looked back on the island, we could see the rain quickly take over the island.  It was pretty intense.  We did get caught up in the rainstorm, and it hurt! We had been outside at the time, so when the rain came down, it felt like hail...not fun...not fun at all, so we booked it downstairs to be under the cover of the boat.  It was raining soo badly that we had to escape to the lowest portion of the boat, in order to stay dry.  It was pretty fun, though the boat was rocking pretty badly at a few points in time.

So that was pretty much our day, we headed back to the main island of Phuket, and headed off to our seperate host families.  Pa Dee (Emi and I's host mom) took us out sight seeing, and we got to go to this mountain type thing, that overlooked the city.  This is what Phuket looks like at night....a lot of pretty lights.  Haha.  We also did things like drive around town, watch people set off fireworks (I'll explain their significance in a later post) and then head back to the hotel for bedtime.  It was quite a fun and action filled day. :)