Phuket Vegetarian Festival begins
You’ll have to forgive me for not getting any pictures today, but other than people wearing white, I didn’t find see to take pictures of. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival has begun, but I’m yet see any of the gruesome sights I’ve been looking forward to coming across.
One good thing that happens during the festival, as with all Chinese festivities, is that a lot of the restaurants in Phuket start offering some really great J food (vegetarian). Some of it is obviously just vegetables, while other dishes are made to look and taste like meat in various guises.
I only last about five hours into the Vegetarian Festival before somebody bought me a bowl of noodles with pork in it. I did have a vague plan to go vegetarian for the duration of the Vegetarian Festival, but decided against it in the end.
According to my little booklet about the Vegetarian Festival, today at 8 pm there was supposed to be some sort of ceremony at Sui Boon Tong Shrine in Phuket Town. “Worship and propitiation to the Gods”, whatever that means.
Excited, I set off on my motorbike, got totally lost for an hour, and eventually find the shrine. Nothing much was going down, aside from a few kids throwing fire crackers at each others. Disappointed, I drove off and stumbled across Jui Tui Shrine, which looked to be the main hive of activity in Phuket Town.
There were hundreds of people strolling around buying food from the various vegetarian stalls. Right next to the shrine itself was a stage with two girls screaming out the latest phone offers from AIS; very in keeping with the spirit of the festival, I thought.
While there were lots of people around, again, there wasn’t anything exciting happening. I think I need to wait for the street processions to begin before I can see the really cool stuff. Feeling despondent, I gave up on all things vegetarian and ate a dish of kaow man gai tort (friend chicken with rice) before heading home to take much-needed nap.
There will be a street procession through Phuket Town at 7 am on Saturday, so I will make a point to wake up for that, as well as bathing in hot oil on Sunday at Gim Tsu Ong Shrine.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival pictures.
Techno' tags: Thailand, Phuket
I will be trying to stick to the food for the duration, like last year. It truly does clean out your system. I might still manage the odd cold beer, though. We got some food in Kathu village last night. Tonight maybe at Sam Kong and I will be sure to try and catch at least one street procession next week. Not sure I can convince the family to wake up early tomorrow morning. The procession tomorrow goes right by the market. Well, if they don't mind, I might go into town tomorrow.