Loi Katrong

We didn’t really have a Thanksgiving here, What we did have was Loi Katrong. That is when the Thai people make floating flower displays from slabs of cocoanut trees decorated with folded banana leaves, and flowers topped with three sticks of incense and a candle. They’re made to apologize to the lakes and rivers for polluting them. The holiday shows the reverence for nature that is so strong in the Thai people. We didn’t spend the day folding banana leaves and placing flowers on our floats, we just went to Bubbles, and bought them. Well, Harv and I did….Sage’s friend Oi made hers. It was really beautiful, totally traditional. The ones Harv and I bought were really big ones that show the kind of unfortunate influence of Western culture corrupting a far more simple beautiful way of life. The ones Harvey and I bought had a bead foam base, and a lot of the decoration was made from nylon ribbon. They were really beautiful, but I felt a little bad about putting non biodegradable stuff into the ocean. They assured us that they all get picked up in the morning, so off we went to float our Katrongs. Pattaya is a beach with no rivers or lakes to speak of, so the Katrongs here are floated in the ocean. If you float them at the beach the waves knock them over immediately, so we walked out to the dock where the fishing boats are moored to float ours. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we were joined by Ann, On’s sister ( and Miss South Pattaya 2004) and Nok (Miss South Pattaya 2005) we made quite an impression walking through Pattaya with all our beautiful Katrongs, and five beautiful Thai girls. As we were walking to the end of the pier a boatload of Chinese, and Japanese tourists were walking off the pier, so there was a jam of people trying to go opposite directions. Harv had his Katrong on his head….they get really heavy….anyway the Chinese and Japanese tourists started oooing, and awwwing at Harvey’s Katrong. Harvey started saying WOW!…..WOW! That just made the tourists ooooo and aaaaaaa more. It was pretty funny. When we got to the end of the pier it got very serious. This is no joke holiday. At least Paew was really serious about what we were doing. You add a piece of yourself to your Katrong…a strand of hair, or in my case a fingernail (no hair to spare), and then put some baht in it (I think that’s part of what gets them all picked up in the morning), then light the incense and candle. As you float the Katrong away you make your apology to mother nature for having done any damage. It seems rather quaint, but I actually felt pretty strongly affected by it. It’s wasn’t quite Thanksgiving, but it was a holiday that I’ll remember forever.