While on the boat, the crew taught us to make "krathong," which is an offering to "Mae Khongka" or the Mother of the Waters. Each guide took three of us and taught us to make these beautiful flower arrangements using a stump of a palm tree for the base (to pin the leaves and flowers on), then using banana leaves and orchids we finished it off. I thought it had an origami feel to it, since we were folding banana leaves over and over again. Each arrangement was different than the others; the girls really enjoyed this.
Lauren is collecting one of the arrangements that we made. This comes from a tradition that occurs on the twelfth lunar month, when the moon rises. These arrangements are made and floated on rivers and canals in the central region of Thailand. How's that for a little Thai culture?
We were seacanoeing into the evening, so it was beautiful to see all of these floating in the dark, all lit up. By the time we rounded them up again, the candles were out, but they were still beautiful.
