Nong Khai

The border from Laos to Thailand was unusually easy in comparison to some of the others we have experienced. In fact so easy that we had arrived in Nong Khai by 11am feeling somewhat disorientated as we are used to arriving in new places at the crack of dawn or the dead of night. It made a refreshing change and we found a room in the guesthouse we had hoped to stay in, even though we had been concerned that it would be full. It's a busy time of year in the area as, once night a year on the 11th full moon, the Naga Fireball festival is held in and around Nong Khai along the Mekong river. The festival is fascinating, as every year, just on this one night, fireballs appear from the river, shooting up into the sky for reasons which the locals attribute to Naga, a giant serpent, and scientists attribute to, well, they're not quite sure. Either way, it sounded like something we wanted to see for ourselves.
The guesthouse we stayed in was just lovely - big relaxing gardens looking over the river, good company and food, and live music in the evening. It was also aranging a luxury cruise to Phon Phisai - the prime place to see the fireballs which we opted out due to cost, and 3 of us decided to rent motor bikes instead. We set out after lunch, leaving ourselves time to avoid too much traffic on the way and see some of the festivities before the fireballs appeared, apparently at around 7.30pm. The journey there was uneventful, with James putting Kev and to shame by having to wait for us to catch him up twice along the way. We also saw what must be Thailand best bananas, as there were about 20 stalls piled high with them along a stretch of just a few metres and almost all the passing cars and bikes stopped to buy. We resolved to buy some on our way back to see what made them so good.
Phon Phisai was where the real festivities were happening. Food stalls, games, lanterns and the hundreds of people already camped out along the river bank gave the place a general air of excitement. We spent the afternoon eating (fried crickets anyone?) and soaking up the atmosphere, before suddenly realising that we should really be finding ourselves a good viewing spot to see the action. The time waiting for the fireballs was probably my favourite part of the festival - fiery Japanese lanterns being released into the air (and more often than not falling back down amid shrieks from the crowd), sparklers and fireworks everywhere and a very, very Thai celebration - hardly a white face in sight. There were occasional moments of excitement as the whole crowd stood up and peered hopefully at the river.. only to sit back down as they realised it was another firework or lantern, not a 330 foot fireball. Confusing. However, to our relief, Naga did the right thing and we did indeed see fireballs - pink lights rising high into the air (and no, they weren't fireworks this time!). A very strange and unsettling experience. I can't explain it, and I'm glad we went. The drive back was a little less easy than the drive there as the traffic was crazy, but we made it in the end and even managed to stop for bananas on the way back (yes, they really were Thailand's best!)
We spent another day in Nong Khai before catching a night bus down to Bangkok, and spent it with James, visiting a (very bizarre) sculpture park. Really, really bizarre. Probably best to read about it here:

http://www.mutmee.com/030010_sculpture_park.htm

See, it's really odd!

I'm a little out of date here, as we are now in Malaysia and have already spent some days stranded on an island - but more of that next time.