KTMphil
Senior member
Dan Sai - Phi Ta Khon mask festival , July 1st & 2nd, 2011
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This year's Phi Ta Khon mask festival coincided with the Thai elections where, so caused some problems over alcohol sales, but didn't seem to prevent people having a great time and getting drunk!
Some Phi Ta Khon festival facts:
The Phi Ta Khon festival is a part of a grand merit-making festival known as the “Boon Luang” or “Bun Pha Ves” . It is an annual festival which is celebrated on the arrival of the 6th or 7th lunar month. Phi Ta Khon is also unique to the Dan Sai district in Loei Province and reflects the local Isan belief in ghosts and spirits.
According to legend, Phi Ta Khon can be found in the tale of Lord Buddha's last great incarnation before attaining enlightenment. It is said that when Prince Vessandorn, the Buddha's penultimate incarnation, returned to his city, it was such a joyous occasion that the village spirits came forth to join the welcoming parade . In Thai , we called this as “Phi Tam Khon” (ghosts follow people) or “Phi Ta Khon” (ghosts with human eyes) . Due to be ghosts, they also teased villagers ,but finally got back and took all misfortune, suffering and illness away.
Mark had some friends over from Australia, so i shot down to Dan Sai on the KTM to catch up with them.
Minor problem on the way down there, stopped at a filling station and the young boy working there filled the KTM up with diesel. Luckily i could smell the diesel, luckily had not been started, so then we had to get it all out.
The local Thai mechanic wanted to siphon it out, but with the strange shape of the KTM adventures molded plastic fuel tanks i knew he wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of the fuel tanks with a siphon hose.
After 4 big mouth fulls of diesel and no siphon created he didn't want to do that any more, but didn't give up and tried with a smaller diameter hose. This got some of the deisel out but didnt get to the bottom of the tank
Easiest thing to do was to loosen the fuel cock casting from the tank and then the fuel would run out, this worked perfectly, i was just worried about the fuel cock casting re-sealing on the tank as i'd never tested this before, wasn't a problem.
Once all the diesel had been removed, added 29 liters of benzine and off to Dan Sai. Mark had booked a decent hotel in the center of town called the Dan Sai resort, very convenient.
Huge room with 3 beds. Mark and Luke had got there the day before me, and joked that they had rubbed their balls on my pillow, didn't smell like they did so i risked the pillow.
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Met up with the boys and off to look at the parade and some fantastic masks.
A group of mask wearers getting ready for their walk along the parade
Great color schemes in their costumes
Great masks
The mask wearer with the bicycle was a huge hit with the chics
The alcohol ban didn't seem to be an issue
Craig sharing some Thai whisky out of a plastic bottle top cup with a mask bearer
A lot of the mask wearers were dragging things around, never did get to find out what was behind it.
View attachment 985
View attachment 980
This year's Phi Ta Khon mask festival coincided with the Thai elections where, so caused some problems over alcohol sales, but didn't seem to prevent people having a great time and getting drunk!
Some Phi Ta Khon festival facts:
The Phi Ta Khon festival is a part of a grand merit-making festival known as the “Boon Luang” or “Bun Pha Ves” . It is an annual festival which is celebrated on the arrival of the 6th or 7th lunar month. Phi Ta Khon is also unique to the Dan Sai district in Loei Province and reflects the local Isan belief in ghosts and spirits.
According to legend, Phi Ta Khon can be found in the tale of Lord Buddha's last great incarnation before attaining enlightenment. It is said that when Prince Vessandorn, the Buddha's penultimate incarnation, returned to his city, it was such a joyous occasion that the village spirits came forth to join the welcoming parade . In Thai , we called this as “Phi Tam Khon” (ghosts follow people) or “Phi Ta Khon” (ghosts with human eyes) . Due to be ghosts, they also teased villagers ,but finally got back and took all misfortune, suffering and illness away.
Mark had some friends over from Australia, so i shot down to Dan Sai on the KTM to catch up with them.
Minor problem on the way down there, stopped at a filling station and the young boy working there filled the KTM up with diesel. Luckily i could smell the diesel, luckily had not been started, so then we had to get it all out.
The local Thai mechanic wanted to siphon it out, but with the strange shape of the KTM adventures molded plastic fuel tanks i knew he wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of the fuel tanks with a siphon hose.
After 4 big mouth fulls of diesel and no siphon created he didn't want to do that any more, but didn't give up and tried with a smaller diameter hose. This got some of the deisel out but didnt get to the bottom of the tank
Easiest thing to do was to loosen the fuel cock casting from the tank and then the fuel would run out, this worked perfectly, i was just worried about the fuel cock casting re-sealing on the tank as i'd never tested this before, wasn't a problem.
Once all the diesel had been removed, added 29 liters of benzine and off to Dan Sai. Mark had booked a decent hotel in the center of town called the Dan Sai resort, very convenient.
Huge room with 3 beds. Mark and Luke had got there the day before me, and joked that they had rubbed their balls on my pillow, didn't smell like they did so i risked the pillow.
View attachment 1005
Met up with the boys and off to look at the parade and some fantastic masks.
A group of mask wearers getting ready for their walk along the parade
Great color schemes in their costumes
Great masks
The mask wearer with the bicycle was a huge hit with the chics
The alcohol ban didn't seem to be an issue
Craig sharing some Thai whisky out of a plastic bottle top cup with a mask bearer
A lot of the mask wearers were dragging things around, never did get to find out what was behind it.
