Veggie Fest + Bloc Party + Carnage...wait...carnage??

The U.S. of A has parades like the Rose Bowl and monumental fireworks displays for the 4th of July, but what if you combined crazy fireworks with city-wide parades, added another 8 days of possessed fire walkers, festivities, bladed ladders, vegetarian food, and an extra helping of carnage...carnage? Well, you would get Phuket's annual Vegetarian Festival! It is fantastic! The Vegetarian Festival is unlike anything imaginable - there are children throwing fireworks at passing cars, parades of people - all dressed in white (as if EVERYONE went to the Twin Palms White Party and have just kept their outfits and their party spirit), and amazing vegetarian food. Since I have been a Pescetarian for almost three and a half years now, I have been waiting for this festival to arrive since I made it to Phuket, hoping to take advantage of some delicious vegetarian food. The event is taken very seriously since, as I believe the story goes, an Chinese opera troop was traveling through Phuket to Kathu (a part of Phuket) to do a performance, but when they arrived, everyone was plagued with illness. To honor the gods, the group took a vow of vegetarianism to cleanse their bodies and rid themselves of the evil sickness. Everyone recovered from their afflictions and now, as a way to cleanse the body and bring purity, good luck, and good health to the people each year (based on the Chinese calendar), Phuket conducts a 9 day vegetarian celebration. In fact, there are 10 official rules for the festival, which all must abide by for the duration of the event. (This is taken from the official Vegetarian Festival website - notice the use of the English language...classic!) http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/phuketvegetarian-eng/phuketvegetarian-history.htm

10 RULES FOR THE VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL

1. Cleanliness of bodies during the festival
2. Clean kitchen utensils and to use them seperately from other who do not join the festival
3. Wear white during the festival
4. Behave physically and mentally
5. No meat eating
6. No sex
7. No alcoholic drinks
8. People at mourning period should not attend the festival
9. Pragnant ladies should not watch any ritual
10. Ladies with period should not attend the ritual Haha! Fantastic. The great thing about the festival is that the intensity is just growing! Here are some pictures from the first day: Lotus flowers. As part of the offerings, people light incense, burn candles, and carry these flowers. They also dip the lotus flowers in holy water and splash any passerby as part of the ritual. So, I made it for the opening ceremony for the festival and it was mostly low key - meaning a lot of fireworks, throngs of people, and food being cooked up/fried up/served up - every which way. Of course though, we only keep our beautiful island greenness with tons of rain and coincidently, a torenticial downpour was in order.   For the first couple of days of the festival, people will be doing things like piercings and what not. I have not woken up early enough to see the piercings, but this is what I have to look forward to - carnage!   (http://thepirata.com/phuket-vegetarian-festival/) This weekend, and I cannot wait for this, they start climbing bladed ladders, doing more piercings, fire and embers walking, and other ceremonial proceedings aimed at bringing good luck to the community. The people who are subjected to these actions are possessed by spirits, thus, when pierced or subjected to violent rituals, they do not bleed or feel any pain - well, sometimes there is blood. This festival is unreal. On top of that, something that is really awesome for a girl who grew up in a state where fireworks were banned and fire danger was an integral part of life, "throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded. It is held that the louder they are the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits." - official website That's right, fireworks everywhere! Everywhere! On the last day, this coming Tuesday, the largest fireworks display is planned at Sapan Hin, as if the firecrackers being thrown night and day are not enough. Additionally, those in the parade are showered by firecrackers on this final day - as well as the observers! The fireworks mark the closure of the ceremony and the sending off of evil spirits - stay tuned! Finally, this week we participated in a not so cultural event. On Wednesday, we made our way to the Sweet, Sexy, & Spicy F1 After Party, featuring Kele of Bloc Party & his crew, Vincenzo, Lovebirds, Kruder of Kruder & Dorfmeister, Alex from Tokyo & DJ Gregory. Now, I don't know what all of that means - the "sweet and sexy" part, but we were pretty excited to attend, because the event itself cost 3,000 baht (about 100 U.S. dollars), but if you had R.S.V.P. -ed right away, you could get in for free. I was one of the people to get after that as soon as I saw that DJs would be present, as was my housemate, Ross, and a couple of our friends. Problem was though, that Geoff had not been one of those go-getters and therefore, was not on the list! One of the three Musketeers, not going?! False. We ended up deciding that we would get Geoff into the event, for free, no matter what it took. Dressed and ready to impress, we caught one of the coolest party vans to the event (coolest party van because the seats were swivel chairs, so we could all drink and party together en route!...yes!) We got to the resort and saw that a girl was managing the guest list pretty diligently. I walked up to her and told her my name, getting through without any hassle. It seemed like everything was set; we checked Facebook beforehand and saw that our friend, Pedro, had R.S.V.P.-ed for the event, but wouldn't be making it. Perfect, we thought, Geoff would be Pedro for the night. (Yes, Pedro, if you are reading this, we did fully intend to steal your identity.) However, the next person to go through was Ross and while Ross was telling the girl his name, he discovered that Pedro was not on the list! Damn it Pedro, you are supposed to look out for these things! :) It was okay, Ross had a plan. He scanned the list for another name for Geoff to use, but the girl checking the names was doing a great job of protecting the list and pulled it towards her body - out of Ross' view. Thwarted! (Yes, I did just use the word "thwarted" - it felt right). Ross informed me through almost gritted teeth (so incognito), "I couldn't get it!" I didn't even hesitate. I swooped in while the girl was checking off Bronwyn's, I mean Marion Jill Amores', name from the sheet, peered over the girl's shoulder, frantically searched for a different name to use. Finally, I saw it - the perfect name! I rushed over to Geoff and spouted, "You are Ronny...Iverson!" It was Geoff's turn. The girl: "Name?" Geoff: "Ronny...Iverson." The girl: "Can you spell it?" Geoff: "R-O-N-N-Y.....I-V-E-R-S-O-N."  (False. Turns out - this isn't even the right spelling - it is S-E-N, not S-O-N.) Non issue. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce fuckin' Ronny Iverson! (Apologies to the real Ronny Iverson - I really hope you didn't have a shit night.) It made the cut. Hell yes! We were in and it was time to party! The venue was like a resort-y beach cabana. Pretty cool. Bloc Party DJ. He was actually chill and played some sweet mixes. Ross and I ended up mobbing with the DJ from Bloc Party to the V.I.P. section where they were serving fantastic food and I'm not talking a coney and some chips. I'm talking sushi, pasta, kebabs, creme brulee, and tiramisu - all fo' free! (I've never even been given a coney for free at an event, so getting Alfredo was on a whole different level for me.) The spread. (Ross) Needless to say, we were psyched!  Additionally, the V.I.P. section was serving drinks all night - doubles in fact. Sorry, but I'm about it. Actually, I'm not sorry - it was the best part of the night. Honestly, if you follow some guy from Bloc Party with a set comprised of mindless eurobeats, you might as well just play top 40 tracks - I'm just saying. I know that I threw a little bit of a fit about this and strutted up to the DJ booth saying, "Dude, you are awesome, but can you please play some bass?" - like my opinion meant anything. Disclaimer: I'm so sorry Phuket DJs for intervening during your sets to voice my love of bass. It IS rude and I WILL stop. I just love bass and sometimes I'm too vocal about it. (You really should try it, though....just for a second, just to see how it feels.) I didn't really dance towards the end of the night and that isss saying something, but we ate some good food, rubbed elbows with some sorta celebrities, and abused our free entry passes to the max. It really was a great night, all in all. With our damage done, we rounded up the troops and Ronny Iverson, blasted top 40 tracks in the van, and made our way back home, leaving the eurobeats...I want to say in the dust, but since it was really a beach party, we really left them in...well, the sand. Hah! So, that was that. With friends arriving for the weekend, friends leaving next week, and the vegetarian festival in full swing, it's either because of my lifestyle of the vegetarian rituals, but this week, there's sure to be carnage. Regardless of which path I take, it's gonna be wild!