Hannukah Bangkok-Style

The weather is about 50 degrees warmer, there are far fewer Jews out and about and, obviously, we miss our family but we still did our best to celebrate Hannukah, Bangkok-style. Besides, getting your first bicycle is pretty cool.

 

 

And, for good measure, we got in some Hannukah during our weekend trip to Hong Kong.

Lopburi and the monkey buffet

No, no, it's probably not what first springs to mind when you hear the term "monkey buffet." The city of Lopburi has so many monkeys that they hold a yearly festival in which they lay out a spread of all kinds of goodies for their local crab-eating macaque population.

 

 

The festival is held at Prang Sam Yot (temple of 3 towers), an ancient Khmer temple that dates back over 1,000 years ago and it quite literally teeming with monkeys.

 (for engorgement fans)

But, while the temple is cool and old and historical and all of that, the monkeys are the real draw. The little guys eat just about anything thrown their way.

 

Eliana was fearless as she decided to actively participate.

But even with all of the festivities, the kids became a potent side attraction in their own right. Yes, many Thais came for the monkey festival but left with pictures of our children.

The grounds had some cultural shows and were adorned with some interesting items.

 

As we left, we noticed that the monkeys weren't just relegated to the temple.

After that, we drove to a sunflower field nearby. Great sunflower seeds but they didn't really sell cut sunflowers, which was odd. However, they had a disturbing amount of ceramic sunflowers. At any rate, we did get to go on the slowest tractor ride known to man.

Shane sits

It may not be that exciting for you or me, but Shane enjoyed his first time sitting up on his own (with an assist from his chair).

Loi Kratong

It got steamy again on Sunday and the sun was a hazy fireball above the buildings of Bangkok.

It also happened to be Loi Kratong, the Thai holiday famous for people floating kratongs, which are typically flower-covered objects with candles and incense which are cast into bodies of water to send away bad luck. Apparently, the big celebration in Bangkok takes place at the Chao Praya river (see previous posts) but given the nighttime start and the location not being especially close or convenient, we headed up to Queen's Park, which has a nice-sized pond and a decent turnout in its own right.

On the trip there, the sidewalks were lined with people making and selling kratongs.

 

After surveying her choices, Eliana selected an kratong in one of her favorite colors, yellow.

With our kratong in hand, we navigated the throng of people down to the pond in order to launch our offering.

 

The pond was already full of krathongs. People tried to propel theirs out into the middle of the pond, but the kratongs seemed content to hug the shoreline, creating a beautiful rim of fire around the pond. I'm not sure our pictures really fully capture how striking the sight is, but nevertheless, here are our attempts.

 

 

(ours!)