Loy kratong in Krabi 2017

Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand.  The name can be translated as “to float a basket”, and comes from the tradition of making krathong or buoyant, decorated baskets, which are then floated on a river. People pay their respects to the goddess of the water. Loy Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar.

I arrived in Krabi on the evening of Loy Krathong, so was just in time to see the festivities. Roads were closed off to allow pedestrians free access to the river area. I was amazed at how many stalls there were, literally hundreds, as well as a children's fairground. It was really bustling.

I got there just around sunset so had a look at the stalls. They were selling the krathong or food. 

Traditionally the krathongs were made of banana leaves and were lotus shaped and decorated with flowers, incense and candles. Now they seem to be all different designs. 

The ones of the dolls are certainly different, also the 2 'swan's above. They remind me more of Chap Go Mei in the Spring.

As it was still not dark I had a look round the food stalls and the children's funfair. I'll do the food as a separate blog.

When it was dark, I returned to the river to watch people releasing the krathongs. There were so many school children, still in uniform. People ask for forgiveness, or show their gratitude or thank the water goddess for supplying water all year. Some just release the offering hoping for luck in the coming year. Couples release one krathong each, hoping they will float away together, a sign of everlasting love.

I read that nowadays people are encouraged to make biodegradable krathongs, with no plastic, styrofoam or staples etc. These people are busy making them -

Even at 10 pm people were still making the krathongs, and the food sellers were doing a roaring business. Unfortunately the moon was very hazy.

Sky lanterns also used to be very popular, to fly away bad luck and grievances. Now they are banned around airports. And some airports such as Chiang Mai actually cancel flights during this time because of the danger of the high flying lanterns. 78 flights are cancelled in 2017 at Chiang Mai for the festival. 

At 9 am the next morning I went back to the river and was amazed to see that all the street rubbish had been removed and all the stalls had gone. The cleaners must have been working so hard. Even the river was generally clear of debris.

Back in Phuket again

I am in Phuket again. I've been coming here 'regularly' for the last few years. Having first visited Phuket (and Thailand) in 1988, I then avoided it for many years, as I considered it too touristy and not the real Thailand. This is still true in my opinion, but I started coming again in the early 2000s and went immediately after the 2004 tsunami. At that time I stayed in Phuket town. Next visit was 2008. Then from 2013 onwards I started 'regular' visits, usually staying in Patong.

Although I still consider it to be too touristy, and not the 'real' Thailand, I enjoy coming as I can relax and do very little, don't need to go sightseeing, so can just laze around. I know where to eat good food at cheap prices, I ignore all the tourist restaurants and bars.

The sad thing is all the sticky cake stalls seem to have disappeared. I used to love these in Thailand. These photos are from 2008 -

And the pancakes, which were 10 Bt when they first appeared (1990s?) now cost up to 80 Bt.

The beach chairs in 2016 -

have now been replaced by these

Most tourists in my hotel are Russians, Chinese and Indians. Last year there were a lot of Middle East people. The hotel manager, a Russian, said Patong is 40% Russian whereas Kata is now 100%. I went to Kata in 2015 and didn't like it, as it was like mini Russia then.

On my current visit, I was intersted to read this article in the Bangkok Post on 3 Nov 2017 :


Phuket friendliness scores well on index 
3 Nov 2017 
BUSINESS > TOURISM & TRANSPORT | WRITER: SUCHAT SRITAMA 

Phuket is at the top of a competitiveness index thanks to product quality and local friendliness, according to a study by the Public Policy Studies Institute Foundation (PPSI). 

The competitiveness index looked at major tourist destinations in Thailand except Bangkok. 

The index found Phuket topped the list, followed by Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Surat Thani, Krabi, Songkhla, Nakhon Ratchasima, Phangnga, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Samut Prakan, respectively. 

The research was conducted recently, focusing on two indicators: arrival numbers and local friendliness. However, some of the highly competitive locations had low scores on the environment, safety or cleaning issues.

For example, Chon Buri province had the second-most visits in the country but it had a low score for environmental issues. Chiang Mai ranked third in arrivals but faced the same problem. 

One recent study on how to develop cruise tourism here found many liners are interested in this emerging market, especially families and working-age travellers. Laem Chabang port in Chon Buri, Samui port in Surat Thani and Phuket port all have high potential to serve cruise tourism.  

Average spending for cruise travellers is 6,174 baht per day per person, which is higher than the average for all tourists. 


Whilst I was in Patong a cruise ship came in, Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas. When I googled it I see it mostly goes to Phuket, Penang, Langkawi, Klang and Singapore.

Foxes sunbathing in autumn

Foxes are "supposed" to be nocturnal, but it is common to see them during the daytime. I generally see them until about mid morning, and then they reappear late afternoon. Now that it is autumn, I often see them sunbathing on shed roofs during the morning right through to lunchtime.

Harvest moon Oct 2017

The beautiful full moon on 5th October 2017 is known as the Harvest Moon. A Harvest Moon is a full moon closest to the autumn equinox. The equinox this year was 22 Sept. The harvest moon is more common in September than October.

It was a nice clear sky in southern England and forecast to be a cold night with maybe the first frost of the autumn.

The next full moon will be the Hunters Moon.

The last Malaysian F1 at Sepang

I've just watched the last Malaysian F1 at Sepang from the comfort of my sofa. It is the final F1 at the Sepang circuit. The first Grand Prix in Malaysia took place in 1999 and was held at the end of the season. In 2001 it was moved to the beginning and was usually the 2nd race of the season, in March, after Australia.

In 2007 Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 president, stated that the environs around the circuit were getting shabby from lack of care, and mentioned the rubbish in the area. However the contract was extended. Malaysia then wanted a night race, after Singapore started theirs in 2008. The F1 organisers didn't agree to this but instead agreed a late afternoon start time, 5pm. However that didn't work out due to heavy rain and darkness. In 2016 it was changed back towards the end of the season, to early Oct.

From Wikipedia : In April 2017 it was announced that the 2017 race would be the last time the event would be held at Sepang. The race's contract was due to expire in 2018, but its future had been under threat due to rising hosting fees and declining ticket sales. Malaysia’s youth and sports minister at the time Khairy Jamaluddin said on Twitter: ”I think we should stop hosting the F1. At least for a while. Cost too high, returns limited. When we first hosted the F1 it was a big deal. First in Asia outside Japan. Now so many venues. No first mover advantage. Not a novelty.” The BBC reported that "Malaysia had struggled in recent years to attract a significant crowd, its appeal damaged by the more glamorous night-time event on a street track in Singapore."

I first went in 2003. Although by international standards, tickets for the Malaysian F1 are remarkably cheap, my group of friends chose to sit on the hill slope, which was the cheapest ticket. This meant we were exposed to the blazing sun, the heat and humidity, and perhaps rain. But it was good fun. Kimi Räikkönen driving for McLaren-Mercedes won.

2004 was almost a repeat of 2003 for us.

We had a good view as Ralf Schumacher's car was taken away with engine failure

Michael Schumacher won in his Ferrari.

I did a blog in 2013.

My last visit was March 2015. Temperatures on race day were very hot, with the track temperature at 61 °C .

2 British drivers -

 

Helicopters have a parking area by the circuits stands. The Weststar helicopter (I know the owner)

Fernando Alonso before the race

Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari, he went on to win the 2015 race -

Jenson Button waiting to get into his McLaren-Honda -

Kimi Räikkönen in his Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes -

As mentioned above, the last F1 race at Sepang was 1 Oct 2017. Taken from Yahoo sports : "Sepang was the first F1 circuit to spring from the pencil of controversial uber-designer Hermann Tilke and it may well have been his best effort.

The layout is instantly recogniseable, with two huge straights slicing into the infield area.

The track itself is a wide beast, encouraging drivers to experiment with different race lines – particularly useful if Sepang is hit by one of those traditional Malaysian downpours.

But all of this hasn’t been enough to encourage the Malaysian government to keep bankrolling F1 and it’s not really surprising.

Tickets are good value here… and that’s because the local demand simply isn’t there. Of course, F1 is all about attracting a global audience but, despite having 1.5 million Kuala Lumpur residents just down the road, Malaysia has never shown any signs of taking F1 to its heart."

The end of an era. I'm extremely glad I was able to go to several F1 races over the years.

Autumn equinox 2017

22 September 2017 - the first day of autumn and the autumn equinox.

“Equinox” (equal night) is when the sun spends the same amount of time above and below the horizon with the tilt of the Earth exactly the same so it is not slanted away or towards the sun, thus making the hours of darkness and light equal.

“Solstice,” (sun stands still) is when the sun stops before reversing its direction causing sunlight to reach the southernmost and northernmost extremes of the Earth and providing them with longer nights and days.

Both an equinox and solstice happen twice each year. An equinox happens at a specific moment in time unlike the solstice which happens in days.

The solstice happens during summer and winter when the sun is the farthest away. The summer solstice is when days of sunlight are the longest, and the winter solstice is when the days of darkness are also the longest.

The equinox happens during the start of autumn and spring, the time when the sun is closest to the equator.

Having said that, there are still different ideas as to when autumn starts. It depends whether you follow the meteorological or astronomical calendar. There's three weeks difference between them both.

In meteorological terms autumn begins on September 1 and ends on November 30. The meteorological calendar uses the Gregorian calendar to split up the four seasons into three month blocks, which, according to the Met Office, makes it easier to observe forecasting and compare seasonal statistics.

Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November
Winter: December, January, February

However the astronomical calendar says autumn starts on Sept 22 this year. Astronomers base the date of the seasons upon celestial events, in autumn's case the autumnal equinox, when night and day are roughly equal length.

It was mostly a miserable summer in the UK weatherwise. The decent weather left after mid July and the rest of the summer was generally cool, cloudy and wet, with the exception of the August bank holiday weekend (28 Aug). There was an autumnal feel the last 2 weeks of August, with the nights drawing in, cooler air and a few leaves turning brown. Blackberries were ready in July, which is particularly early.

By the autumn equinox, although it felt autumnal, it still looked mostly like summer, as few trees had started to turn brown. 22 Sept in London was beautifully sunny with a clear blue sky.

The exception to this is the 'conker trees'. Many of the horse chestnut trees have a disease caused by a fungus, Guignardia aesculi. It is known as Guignardia leaf blotch, as it shows as brown blotches on the leaves and as seems to be the case, the whole leaf turns brown. The horse chestnut or conker trees have been turning brown since July, due to the blotch, not autumn. The conkers started falling around the end of August.