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Interesting
Festivals
Songkran Festival (13-15 Apr)
The traditional Thai New Year, joyfully celebrated throughout
the country with rituals of merit making, cleaning houses, honouring
elders, parades of dancers and music troupes, and boat races.
What makes the festival most interesting is water splashing, an
amusing way to make you cool in the hot season. It is celebrated
in a grand way in Chiang Mai and at Phra Pradaeng near Bangkok.
Rocket
Festival ( around the 2nd weekend of May)
Called "ngan bun bang fai" in Thai, it is a unique festival
of the Northeast, most elaborately celebrated in Yasothon province.
Bamboo rockets are launched as an annual plea to gods for plenty
of rainfall in the rainy season The festival also includes sacrificial
rites, a colourful procession of country folk dances and a beauty
contest.
Vegetarian
Festival (around 29 Sept - 7 Oct)
People of Chinese origin in Phuket and Trang provinces make merit
by abstaining from food and oil from animals, holding processions
of god statues along the streets and observing traditional magical
rites as a sacrifice to their gods.
Loy
Krathong or Festival of Light (11 Nov, the full-moon day)
The romantic night festival, people gather at the waterside to float
krathongs, lotus-shaped vessels lovely decorated with flowers and
lit candles, as a thanksgiving and worship to the Goddess of Water.
Magnificent celebrations are held in Sukhothai and Chiang Mai.
Surin
Elephant Round-up (18-19 Nov)
Surin, a northeastern province, is famous of its greatest number
of elephants and its world-famous elephant round-up. The show features
elephant football, elephant race and hunt. Elephants in ancient
battle and demonstrations of their strength and skills.
The
River Kwai Bridge Week (26 Nov - 7 Dec)
Held in Kanchanaburi province to commemorate the horrible ordeal
suffered in the construction of the Death Railway to be used by
the Japanese army as a route of supply from Thailand to Burma in
World War II. The festival features a historical exhibition, fun
fair, bazaar and exciting light & sound presentation.
Biggest
& Best
The biggest gold Buddha image
Phra Sukhothai Traimit or the Gold Buddha of Wat Traimit, Bangkok.
Cast in 5 ? tons of solid gold in the Sukhothai style, this statue
measures 3.10 m across the laps and 3.91 m high from base to top,
and is the largest gold Buddhist stature in the world. It is estimated
to be 700-800 years old but had been mistaken for an ordinary stucco
image until May 1955.
The
highest mountain
Doi Inthanon is one of the most frequently visited national parks
of Thailand. A 47-km first class road leads from the plain of
Chiang Mai (about 300 m above sea level) gradually up to the 2,565-metre
summit.
The
most precious Buddha image
"Phra Kaeo Morakot" or the Emerald Buddha, which almost
all foreign visitors to Bangkok have seen or will see at the Temple
of the Emerald Buddha, is held by the Thai people as a priceless
national treasure, much more valuable than even the solid gold
statue mentioned above. It was carved from a single block of fine
jade across the taps and 66 cm. Sitting posture, it was 48.3 cm
wide across the laps and 66 cm. High from base to top.
The
tallest Buddhist pagoda
Phra Pathom Chedi, in the heart of the provincial town of Nakhon
Pathom, 56 km west of Bangkok, is 120.45 m high and is the tallest
Buddhist monument of the world. The original stupa was built many
centuries ago and was rebuilt to its present height in 1853 by
King Rama IV, who had been in the Buddhist monkhood for 27 years
before ascending the throne.
The
province with the biggest elephant population
Surin in the Northest bordering Cambodia is known as the home
of elephants. They are reared by local farmers as domestic animals
like cattle. The annual Elephant Round-up, a well known event
in the tourist circles, is held in Surin at the third weekend
of November.
The
largest crocodile
Over 6 m long and a hybrid from a fresh-water crocodile and a
saltwater one, it is kept in Samutprakarn Crocodele Farm, The
biggest of its kind in the world. The reptile is 27 years old
and weighs 1,114.27 kg.
Provided
by Tourism Authority of Thailand
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Email : reservation@lantaresort.com Attn : Ms. Polly
TAT TRAVEL LICENSE No. 11/02161
