Chak Phra Festival 2557

At the completion of the annual 3-month Buddhist Rain Retreat as well as the 10-day Vegetarian festival, local southern tradition of Chak Phra, or “pulling of the Buddhist monks,” symbolizes the Buddha’s return to Earth.

The festival lasts for a week and in addition to the main parade, there are also boat races, cultural celebrations & performances. A large market is set up near the river where schools and other organizations recreate scenes from traditional Buddhist stories. People pose in and among the different life-sized dioramas and put money in the Buddha trees for good luck.

There is also a large art exhibition from regional photographers. The images reminded me again and again of what a beautiful country this is and all the gratitude I have for my experiences here, the amazing people I have met, and the opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. Thailand has been an amazing place to call home and this festival is a perfect image of Surat in all her glory…

Chak Phra Festival, Suratthani

seated Buddha, Suratthani

NaMuang Road, Suratthani

Photography Exhibition ~ Chak Phra Festival, Suratthani

Each temple in the district adorns a long, ornately carved boat with images of the Buddha, shrines, flowers, lights and bowls for offerings (you put your donation in the bowl corresponding with your day of birth - some boats use numbers and others use day of the week, each auspicious and represented with a specific image of Buddha). Ropes are tied to the large structures and people pull the boats through the streets of the city as the community gathers to pay merit to the monks with donations of food, incense, candles, toiletries, or coins. The parade leads to the pier on the Tapi River where the procession takes to the water as boats carry on in their glory late into the night as fireworks light up the sky.

Everything You Want You Need You Get It

BanDon to BanNaSan: Khamin Cave

Tom and P’Noi have been so amazing to me since I moved to Thailand over a year ago, and before I leave they wanted to take me out for a day trip and asked me where I would like to go. I had been wanting to visit Khamin Cave for sometime, I didn’t know too much about it but thought it might be cool to see. When I suggested it they admitted that neither of them had ever been and would love to take me!

The cave is about 45 minutes out of town and we took a beautiful back road to get there and made a couple of stops by their friends’ houses along the way. When we reached the cave we were happy to have a tour guide that would join us and give us a little history and information about what we were seeing.

After a short hike we made it to an old wooden bridge that led to the entrance to the cave, which happens to be in the top 5 largest caves in Thailand.

Flashlights were dispersed and we entered the cave on a long metal walkway that led to three flights of steep stairs descending to the floor of the cave. Before we even made it to the stairs the tour guide stopped abruptly and pointed to a large snake on the railing of the walkway. The white and yellow coconut tree snake was at least 5 feet long but quite thin around. It didn’t seem bothered at all as we stomped and shook our lights at it trying to get it to retreat. After about 15 minutes of banging and waiting for it to meander its way down the stairs we were able to make it to the cave floor. Immediately the snake disappeared into the dark and we all tried to forget about it, after all the guide assured us it was not poisonous. Tom insisted that it was great luck, especially for him because he was born in the year of the snake. P’Noi and I weren’t so convinced and we firmly clasped our hands and stayed close together.

The cave is millions of years old and in many places is over 90 meters high, the shortest path takes you on a loop that is over 1 km long and if you continue further there are many more rooms and at least one of the paths continues for several kilometers before opening out to the sea. The expansiveness of the space was almost overwhelming, yet as we explored deeper and deeper the lack of fresh oxygen was unnerving. The cave used to be called Tham Men, or “stinky cave” but as that was rather offputting they switched to a more appealing name Tham Khaming, meaning “tumeric cave” – which comes from the natural white tumeric that is found growing near the entrance. But true to the orginial name, the cave had a very pungent smell of bat guano. Home to millions of bats we had to be careful not to slip as the ground was covered in a slick layer of bat shit. For hundreds of years companies used jeeps and other equipment to collect the shit and it was used in making gunpowder, now the Thai government has banned the practice but a few traces of the industry remain.

from GoogleImages

The cave used to have extensive network of lights that lined the path, but somewhat recently the electrical grid short-circuited due to the high acidity of the water. The guide said that they would not be fixing or replacing the lights and now the only light we had was our flashlights. This made taking any photographs nearly impossible with my camera. But when I went to Google Images, it was shocking to see the difference it made to have the path lit up in comparison to our dark journey through this vast network of stalactites and stalagmites.

In addition to the snakes and bats, the cave is also home to the largest and scariest spiders I have ever seen. Many of them were about the size of my hand and with dramatic black and white markings. On one wall in particular we saw at least 10 of these spiders strategically guarding egg sacks that were about the size of a quails egg. Unlike the snake however, the guide warned us that the spiders are quite poisonous and to be careful.

As we made our way back towards the metal staircase we were ready to re-emerge into the world above ground where we were grateful to feel the fresh air flooding our lungs and our eyes graced by natural light. The greens of the leaves seemed brighter, the smell of the rain was revitalizing and the sunlight seemed more glorious than ever. So many amazing things in this world to be greatful for!!

After such an adventurous trek we were all starving – P’Noi was voraciously gathering rambutans (delicious fruit that can only be described as some sort of mixture between a grape and a pear –  scary looking red spiny sphere with juicy white flesh on the inside and a single pit in the center) from under a huge tree near the cave.

After our quick snack we headed straight to a local restaurant for some khanom jeen (noodles with a really spicy curry), veggie soup for me, and coconut for dessert.

After one more stop to visit one of their old friends we went to see a really neat restaruant on the river. There had a really interesting collection of sculpures and art pieces all around so I couldn’t help but to snap some photos! But they didn’t have any fresh coffee so we just enjoyed the view and the art and went on our way.

We had been touring, eating and exploring all day but we had one final stop in the town of Ban Na San. We had to have some of their famous fried chicken. P’Noi has told me numerous times about how amazing this chicken is, and I normally don’t eat fried chicken but I wasn’t about to miss out on something I had been hearing about for so long! And I was not disappointed! It was, in fact, the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted!! Apparently the recipe has been in the family for three generations and the old woman who made it for us said she has been making this same fried chicken for over 50 years, since she was 13 years old!

Perfect end to a great day seeing more of the countryside and exploring the districts of Surat outside of the city. I am so grateful to have met and spent time with such amazing people – Tom and P’Noi have taught me so much about life, and love and finding balance and peace. Their openness and honesty continually inspires me and I have so much gratitude and respect for them both!