Our Thanksgiving video from 2015! Thanksgiving is this Thursday, so let’s celebrate Bangkok-style!
How can you celebrate Thanksgiving when you live 9000 miles away from home?
It’s Pinky’s first Thanksgiving! Michael will try to make it special, even if it means compromising on some of the traditional Thanksgiving foods that are just impossible to find in Thailand.
We visit Nishiki Market in Kyoto to find some weird and crazy food to try. We get our fortune told by a scary creature.
Finally, we take the shinkansen to Tokyo and find ourselves in the midst of a hanami (cherry blossom viewing party)!
Shout-out to our friends Shaun and Clinton at the 2 Player Select Podcast who recommended us to try Natto in Japan! Subscribe to their podcast to listen to talk about gaming and life in Japan. Seriously, these guys make my morning commute so much more fun.
Bonus video! We can’t wait too long before publishing this one, since it’s still Loy Krathong week! This year, we celebrate the Loy Krathong Festival on a smaller scale than before, with a local Loy Krathong celebration at the famous Marble Temple.
Short Answer: Don’t
Long Answer: No, really. Don’t.
Ok, ok… Maybe I’m being a little harsh. After all, I’ve only taken one night train in Myanmar. These are my thoughts. I would be happy to hear from anyone else who had a different experience from mine.
Are the Burmese trains really that bad?
After all, my go-to train advice blog, The Man in Seat 61 doesn’t seem to think so. Let’s take a look.
Myanmar, commonly called Burma, is actually one of my favorite places to travel. After half-a-century of relative isolation, it’s now easier than ever to get a visa to visit Myanmar, a lesser-known and often misunderstood country located between Thailand, China, and India.
The Man in Seat 61.
Really bumpy! As in, getting several inches of clearance from the rock-hard mattress with each jolt bumpy. It really felt like the train might derail at a few points through the night.
The truth is, it was impossible to sleep. We were told that the train from Yangon to Mandalay would take “ten to twenty hours”. Fortunately for us, it took only sixteen.
$25 got a ticket in a first-class private compartment, but the beds were dirty, and the single, thin sheet that was provided didn’t even cover the moldy mattress.
The electricity didn’t work, nor did the fan. The window was stuck open,and it was raining all through the night. And the train’s public toilet… well… I have nothing to say about that.
That’s not to say it was all bad. The staff provided each compartment with fresh water and moist towelettes. That was nice at least. And rail travel is still one of the more environmentally-friendly ways to travel, although the train did seem to be putting out an awful lot of black smoke…
Our video showing the inside of a Burmese night train on the journey from Yangon to Mandalay.
How ’bout a throwback bonus video this week?
One of my all-time favorite videos, in which I examine the sweet,
sincere, hilarious, and sometimes bizarre English desk graffiti at my
school in Bangkok, Thailand.
It’s kind of a hobby of mine to look for funny new things the students have written on their desks. Enjoy!
Comic #14 – Loy Krathong – 16 November 2016
Wishing you all the best on this Loy Krathong Festival
“Inari is the god of rice, sake, and money, which are three things that I really like. Well, actually I don’t have strong feelings about rice. Sake and money are two things that I really like. I don’t mind rice.”
In Beer and Ice Cream part 2 we pick a terribly cold spring day to climb Mt. Inari and Michael makes an impractical choice in wardrobe. There is also tea, temples, sakura, and even golden ice cream.
One of the nice things about living in another country is having twice the holidays and learning about the culture of your new adopted home. For us American expats in Thailand, November brings us not only Thanksgiving Day, but also Loi Krathong, one of the most important holidays in Thai culture.
Loi Krathong is the Thai Festival of Lights. It takes place on the night of the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (almost always November), and next to Songkran Day is one of Thailand’s most important holidays. It is a day to pay respect and show honor to the spirit of the river, which is the lifeblood of Thailand.
It’s traditionally a reverent night of reflection, when Thais will float their prayers and good wishes off into the river with a krathong.
“Loi” is a verb in Thai which means “to float”. A “Krathong” is a “basket”. More specifically, it is a float traditionally made out of banana leaves in which incense and candles are placed and send off down the river.
Modern krathongs can be made out of banana leaves, but can also be made out of plastic, which kind of defeats the traditional environmentalist aspect of the holiday, in paying respect to the river.
Some modern krathongs are also made out of bread. This is a nice idea, as the bread will break apart to feed the fish and birds.
Why, you loi a krathong, of course! Or rather, you float a float. You know what I mean. On Loi Krathong night, people from all over Thailand gather at the water to light a candle and a stick of incense, say a prayer, and float their krathongs off into the river. Loi Krathong is a day of remembrance in which people should give thanks to the river for nurturing the land. It is a very important day of thanks.
It’s also a lot of fun!
You can find a Loi Krathong celebration pretty much anywhere in Thailand, although the festivities will differ by region. The Bangkokians and Central Thais like to float candles in the river, while the northern Thais up in Chiang Mai send candles up to the heavens in floating lanterns. Wherever you go, Loi Krathong is sure to be a beautiful and reverent holiday.
In Bangkok, the biggest celebration is the annual four-night River Festival, which is organized by the Ministry of Tourism. The River Festival has events at seven different waterfront temples, with free ferry service to shuttle people to and from the piers. Each temple hosts a different event or celebration. Pick up a free stamp book and visit all of them!
Asiatique riverfront shopping arcade in Bangkok also hosts a fun and exciting Loi Krathong celebration, but you can expect heavy crowds.
Attend the festivities a day early to beat the crowds.
River Festival official website
Comic #13 – Vacation – 9 November 2016
When you are a kid, you love school holidays. But the truth is, your teachers loved the holidays just as much (and very likely even more) than you did!
At least that’s my experience!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love teaching. I just also happen to absolutely love vacation.
The school year in Thailand is very different than what I was used to in the United States. The first term begins in May and goes until October. The term holiday (think Christmas vacation) lasts two or three weeks, and school starts up again with the second semester from November to March. There is no Fall or Spring Break, but schools are closed for a number of Buddhist or national holidays and long weekends throughout the year.
Christmas, of course, is not a holiday in Thailand, so we usually have to go to work on the 25th of December. It almost always falls during midterms… yay…
LB convert