Tag: Thai Festival

Big Mountain Music Festival, Khao Yai

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The Glastonbury Festival of Thailand?

The Big Mountain Music Festival takes place in December every year at the Bonanza venue in Khao Yai, just a couple of hours drive outside of Bangkok. 

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Big Mountain Music Festival 5

As of now, the Big Mountain Music Festival is still only 5 years old, so it’s still a relatively new event. It’s particularly popular with under 30s and teens, and has less of a diversity of ages than other western music festivals. Also, as you can tell from the use of primarily Thai language on their website and in their promotions, the Big Mountain Music Festival is not overly famous among foreigners either.

The Big Mountain Music Festival is open to roughly 40,000 festival-goers with tickets going on sale around September time for 1500 baht. You’ll need to buy your tickets from one of the Thai Ticket Major offices – one of the easiest to reach and most central Thai Ticket Major shops in Bangkok is in Zen, Central World.

Music at BMMF

There are a total of roughly half a dozen stages scattered around the grounds of the Big Mountain Music Festival at Bonanza, all with an amazing Thai mountain backdrop. Most of the bands are Thai, however there are a couple of not-so-famous foreign bands too.

In the typical, creative Thai style, the Big Mountain Music Festival has plenty of loveable and quirky details throughout that make it a completely unique festival experience. The gates open at 3pm so you can witness the sun set over the awesome landscape and decorations too.

At Big Mountain Music Festival 5, the stages had different themes and characteristics, the most prominent stages being the Cow Stage, with a giant swinging cow head and crazy spinning eyes; the Sticky Rice Stage, with an oversized sticky rice basket for the DJs to perform from; the Sperm stage, with lots of floating sperms lining the tent; and – my personal favourite – the Ferris Wheel Stage, with dozens of neon, colourful ferris wheels spinning away behind the stage.

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One awesome bonus, was that you could ride the ferris wheels for a behind the scenes view of the stage for just 40 baht. Watching the BMMF Superband playing while the crowd bounced around pumping their fists during sunset was well worth the money!

As for the atmosphere at the Big Mountain Music Festival, it’s much more mellow and well behaved than your standard music festivals. Looking around, there were never many other people drinking alcohol – despite the multitude of Chang beer tents scattered around the place – and many people seemed to opt to sit down at many of the stages. It has quite a contrastingly pleasant atmosphere, however if you prefer a little more excitement, just make sure to head to the main stage. There were plenty of drunken and excitable festival goers to dance around with when I visited, it was  awesome!

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Dress warm!

One word of advice if you’re heading to the Big Mountain Music Festival: Bring a hoodie or a jacket, it’s seriously cold!!! Just be prepared that, even if it is hot everywhere else in Thailand, BMMF is located in the mountains and the temperatures drop massively once the sun sets. Most of the Thais use it as a good excuse to wear their woolley hats, scarves and jackets to the Big Mountain Music Festival.

Where to stay

The Big Mountain Music Festival lasts 2 days – you can either stay two nights in a nearby hotel or you can camp. For campers, there are two major areas in Bonanza for tents: external and internal. If you’re planning on staying out and watching music until late then it’s a good idea to sleep inside the grounds, if you actually want some sleep then you might want to camp outside instead. You can either hire a ready-pitched tent or bring you own tent.

  • If camping outside, for a 3x3m pitch for your own tent it costs 450 baht. For an already-pitched 2 person tent, it costs 900 baht. You can check in the day before the festival starts and head to the pre party if camping externally.
  • Alternatively, if camping internally, it costs 1200 baht to rent an already-pitched tent. You can only check in on the day of the festival rather than the night before if camping inside. You also need to bring your own sleeping bag (highly recommended). You can book tents via Thai Ticket Major when buying your Big Mountain Music Festival tickets.
  • All of the local hotels are located quite a few kilometres away from Bonanza. However, this isn’t a problem as there are plenty of motorcycle taxis kicking around outside the festival grounds during all hours. The earlier you book the better, as hotels book up very quickly in the run up to Big Mountain Music Festival. I stayed in a hotel called Eco Valley Lodge – this was a really nice hotel located about 10km away. It may be worth getting hotel staff to write directions in Thai for you to give to the drivers though.

Getting around

If staying in a hotel in Khao Yai, hotel staff should be able to arrange a songtaew for you to get to the festival. Depending on how far away your hotel is, this will cost a few hundred baht. Getting back from the festival, there won’t be any songtaews so you’ll have no choice but to take a motorcycle taxi. They’re not too cheap, you’ll likely be charged between 200 and 400 baht per person.

How to get to Khao Yai

You can get a minivan from around 3200 baht from Bangkok to Khao Yai, hotels can arrange this. Alternatively, you can catch the shuttle bus from Bangkok to Big Mountain Festival on the Saturday morning and back on the Monday morning. Of course this may be subject to change in upcoming festivals, but prices generally cost around 550 baht each way. If there’s a group of you travelling together, it may be worth hiring your own minivan – Oriental Escape have minivans for hire for 3500 baht from Bangkok to Khao Yai.

 

Best Time To Visit Thailand

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Thailand Seasons

The most comfortable time to visit Thailand is between October and March time. At this time of year, Thailand is at it’s coolest temperature with the least rainfall and humidity. During this time, temperatures tend to stay in the low 30 degrees.

Conversely, April and May are the hottest months to visit, with temperatures often hitting almost 40 degrees. However, tourist prices and hotel costs can be cheaper because it is low season. For some, the hot temperatures can be unbearable in the middle of the day and make it very difficult to do any kind of strenuous sporty activities such as bike tours.

From June to August is the rainy season in Thailand. It’s cooler than the hot season but still warmer than Christmas season. Most days, there is not actually that much rain and it’s quite consistent, usually either rainy storms during the night or heavy rain for an hour during the daytime. However, if you are unlucky, you might experience a fortnight long storm of miserable weather; it’s a bit of a gamble.

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Cool Festivals In Thailand

Here is a small list of some of the most fun and interesting festivals and events held throughout Thailand. Most festival dates differ year by year –  you may want to check exact dates if you are planning a trip specially around a Thai festival!

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Big Mountain Music Festival

 

Golden Mount Wat Saket Temple Fair Loy Krathong

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What is Loy Krathong?

Loy Krathong is a festival in Thailand celebrated every year during the full moon in November. It’s one of the most popular and famous celebrations in Thailand along with Songkhran; People from all over the country journey to their nearest river, lake or pond, to float their own individual ‘krathongs’ to pay respect to the water spirits. The Loy Krathong celebrations symbolize letting go of one’s hatred, anger and sins. You’ll find krathong floats for sale everywhere during the evening on Loy Krathong day from just 10 baht per float.

Golden Mount Temple Fair

During the day in Bangkok, a good place to witness some of the Loy Krathong celebrations before taking to the waterways, is the Golden Mount, also know as Wat Saket. At the Golden Mount grounds, the locals hold a lively temple fair with numerous bustling stalls, children’s fairground rides, and offerings to the Buddha in the temple.

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The temple fair at Golden Mount is great for sampling all the Thai food and snacks; shopping at the clothes stalls and knick knack stalls; or winning prizes on the various shooting games and darts games – There’s even a ferris wheel too. Some of the stalls have some pretty weird food for sale at the temple fair if you’re feeling brave: fried insects and frogs on sticks – quite unusual snacks even for Thailand.

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Offerings to the Buddha at Golden Mount

Golden Mount gets really busy during the Loy Krathong festivities, so it’s best to be prepared for some big crowds during your climb up the temple stairs. Before you enter, you need to make a 20 baht donation at the stall at the bottom of the stairs. In exchange for this, you’ll be given a flower and some incense to offer at the temple. The stairs up to the Golden Mount are long and winding – and freakin’ hot – but they offer some amazing views over the Old City of Bangkok.

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Watching the local Thais serenely ringing the huge bells during the walk to the top of the temple makes for an interesting journey. Once you get to the first room, you need to make your offering of the flower and incense to the Buddha statues whilst kneeling and praying. There’s a small piece of paper which has been tied to the flower – you need to keep hold of this and take it to one of the next rooms. Here, you can open it up, peel away a tiny little gold sticker, and stick it on the golden covered buddha.

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For such a holy day, Wat Saket Temple doesn’t come across as particularly spiritual. Inside the temple, Temple goers seem herded through the connecting rooms which, by the way, have way too many souvenir shops. I know right, wtf? Souvenir shops inside a temple?

I suppose it’s not uncommon for a Bangkok temple, but the atmosphere is a little too commercial and busy for my liking – if you’re expecting a spiritual and peaceful experience, you may be disappointed. It’s not all bad though, at the very top of the temple there is a beautiful golden Chedi draped with red cloth and windswept flags. Even with the hordes of people queueing to snap photos, it’s a beautiful sight and there are breathtaking views over the city which are worth seeing.

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How to get to Wat Saket Golden Mount

If you happen to be staying near Khaosan road or the Banglamphu area of Bangkok then Wat Saket Golden Mount can be easily reached on foot. Alternatively, you can take a taxi or canal boat – perhaps the canal boat might provide a more scenic route. If taking the canal boat, look out for the stop called ‘Phan Faa’ and get off there. If taking a taxi, most drivers should know it if you mention ‘Wat Saket’.

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Thailand Vegetarian Festival

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Thai Vegetarian Festival Roots

The famous Vegetarian Festival of Thailand, also known as the Taoist Nine Emperor Gods Festival, originated in Phuket in the 19th century. During this time, the island of Phuket had a large number of Chinese immigrants who, after widespread disease among the community, had introduced a period of fasting and abstinence to cleanse and heal themselves.

This hard going ritual gradually evolved from strict fasting to a simple vegan diet instead. During this period, participants must give up all fish, dairy, meat and poultry for nine days, plus, they should wear white from head to toe. Nowadays, you will see the wearing of white mainly practised within the temples rather than outside in the cities.

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During this cleansing period in the past, individuals in Phuket were found to show bizarre behaviour such as self mutilation; this was a sign of possession followed by the escape of evil spirits from the body. The Vegetarian Festival in Phuket is still the renowned home to this behaviour and hence piques the attention a lot of curious tourists, both Thai and foreign.

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is pretty grisly and perhaps not for the feint hearted – impaling, skinning, slashing and bloodletting are all common behaviours found during the Phuket festivities. On that note, Phuket is probably the winner for the most interesting area of Thailand to celebrate the Vegetarian Festival, however you can still enjoy the celebrations and variety of vegetarian food in Bangkok and the rest of Thailand as well.

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Celebrating the Vegetarian Festival in Bangkok

As you might gather from the Vegetarian Festival’s Chinese roots in Thailand, it makes sense that the best place to celebrate it in Bangkok is in China Town. The Vegetarian Festival takes place all over Bangkok during October and lasts 9 days; the exact date differs slightly every year but the celebrations are always held in October.

Across the city of Bangkok, you’ll notice the streets come alive with yellow flags and bunting to represent the Vegetarian Festival. Most street vendors and many restaurants participate in the vegetarian celebrations with extra vegetarian dishes and tofu substitutes.

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Among just a few of the typical dishes on offer during Vegetarian Festival are vegetable tom yam (spicy vegetable soup), tofu massaman curry, mushroom & tofu yakisoba noodles and a range of salads such as a sweet and sour pumpkin & mushroom. There are also a range of fake meats on offer like fake pork dumplings and meatballs made of flavoured sticky rice – some of the meat substitutes actually taste uncannily similar to real meat.

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You can also find some colourful sweets and desserts on sale on the Bangkok streetwalks: Black bean sticky rice roasted in bamboo shoots; Thai breakfast doughnut served with sweet condensed milk (called Pa Thong Ko – pronounced Bpah Tong Go); and of course, the best Thai dessert of all: mango sticky rice with coconut.

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China Town Vegetarian Festival Bangkok

Nowhere in Bangkok celebrates the Thai Vegetarian Festival quite like China Town does! With colourful lanterns and bunting strung across the road as far as the eye can see, Yaowarat Road becomes tinged with bright yellow during all the vegetarian festivities. Hundreds of food stalls line the road side, locals gather to pray at the many temples, and traditional Chinese Opera is performed in the evenings.

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The bottom of Yaowarat tends to have the most activity during festivities and celebrations in China Town. You can take a taxi to Yaowarat 5 or the Golden Buddha Temple, Wat Traimit. This part of Yaowarat Road has plenty of food stalls and beautiful temples to explore. The best time of day to visit the China Town Vegetarian Festival for most people is during the evening from about 6pm.

Basically, the later you head to China Town, the more lively and busy it will be, plus you might just get to catch some of the Chinese Opera performances on Charoen Krung Road Soi 20. However, China Town does get pretty crazy during the evenings so if you hate crowds, you might prefer to visit during the daytime when the atmosphere is much more subdued and quiet.

China Town nearest public transport station: Hualumpong MRT/ BTS Sala Deng