Sawasdee krab!
Held at the Ozone Reserve at the far east side of Langley Park was the Loy Krathong (Full Moon Festival). Knowing nothing about this event we ventured down with our cameras and an appetitie from 3pm until about 8pm. We were promised floating lanterns, Thai dances, other performances, a beauty pageant, Thai food and fireworks. Organisers Thai-Australian Association of WA certainly delivered!
But, it was still a bit weird at times.
The venue was ozone reserve, at the east end of Langley Park in Perth, the date was 22nd November 2015;
Luckily we arrived with no cash so wasted the next hour looking for an ATM. In Oz none of the banks play nicely so it takes a while to find the right one! We came back just in time to see what I can only guess where the beauty pageant prelim stages…
The food stalls were obviously the highlight. Reasonable sized dish for ten bucks, and plenty of stalls to satisfy! Its really the only reason I go to these events.
Later in the afternoon, folks started arriving in droves, and the afternoon entertainment began. First up were fighters from Phon’s Martial Arts Centre, displaying their Muay Thai skills. It was still a family event, so my dreams of a bloodsport type event were shattered pretty quickly. A bit of sparring to begin with, followed by the younger fighters, then girls and guys.
For some reason, there was a rock’n’roll display. It wasn’t very Thai, but according to the promoter it was to give us a break from all the Thai culture. It was pretty overwhelming….errm.
The final stage of the beauty pageant (which I later found out was actually the Miss Noppamaht Beauty Pageant…) was held towards the end. Each participant pranced around on the stage, gave a few smiles and then answered a randomly selected question like “What change in the world would you like to see” (has to be world peace every day of the week) and “what are your hobbies”, which resulted in a very simple “dancing and modelling”. Towards the end of the shindig, guests were allowed to buy balloons or flowers from one of the stores and the person with the most at the end was crowned Miss Noppamaht…or Miss Popularity as I kept hearing it referred to as. Bearing in mind you could buy as many items as you wanted it felt a little undemocratic…but I’m sure its just for fun…and nobody was upset by losing…
The part I was waiting for was the whole ‘putting little lanterns in the lake and taking photos before the fireworks’ thing. It arrived, except with the slight breeze, most of them didn’t stay lit and ended up at one end of the lake.
Then, fireworks. Ruined only by the perfect timing of the WACA stadium turning on their floodlights. Still, never actually taken photos of fireworks before. Think I may need to invest into a remote shutter. Its difficult timing to a 2 second delay! Regardless, I really enjoyed the fireworks!
