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It’s that time of year again, where the Chinese Thais in the south go 9 days and 9 nights of avoiding meat or any animal products, being possessed by what they would have you believe sacred spirits–though I say they’re just hungry and delirous . Not sure if I’m going to do the whole 9 yards as I did last year. Actually, technically, I didn’t last since day one, where I ordered chicken nuggets Macdonalds delivery, forgetting that the first day of the festival (Oct 10) had begun. Than today, I had cereal with milk which is against the rules since the milk came from an animal. Ah well, I’m not Chinese and don’t necesarily believe in all the hocus pocus, but I already been through it all last year, so no pressure for me to live by any codes.

Some people only do 3 or 5 days, it’s only really strictly followed by the hard cores. The other big part of the festival is not only the eating vows, but the reckless behavior if I might call it so. Phuket is famous for all these supposed posessed nimwits walking around the streets inflicting self mutilation, aparently to prove that the spirits are protecting them from pain. Well, apparently, that’s the same reason why the kids through fire crackers at each other!

Personally, I’m real annoyed about the fire cracker attitude-behavior issue here during this week+ festival, where absolutely no control or responsibility is exercised–reckless kids and teenagers in a war zone–like sonkran, only change the water to explosive fire crackers.

If you happen to be in town for the festival or planning to join in the fun, particularly during nights, be very aware and cautious of flying fire crackers. Spirit or no spirit, what you gonna say when you’re blind in one eye–that the spirit was distracted at that particular moment???

Anyway, for those wanting to learn more about the history and background of the Phuket Vegan fest (wrongfully called the Vegetarian festival), be sure to check out this blog entry which is a good briefing-overview, or go to the official Phuket vegan site .

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