Makha Bucha Day

Today is a public holiday in Thailand, so I have had a day off. Nothing to do with St. Valentines Day. It is Makha Bucha Day, an important Buddhist festival that in Thailand is celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month of the year. The festival marks the first sermon delivered by the Buddha to his disciples, nine months after his enlightenment. It is said that 1,250 disciples attended, and the remarkable thing is that none of them had been summoned - they all turned up of their own accord. (This being way before the days of Facebook and Twitter, I wonder how they knew it was happening...) The main celebrations take place at sunset, with candlelit processions called Wian Tian at local temples.

Alice and I took advantage of the day off to go for a walk at a popular day-trip location, where there is a hot spring and, for those dedicated enough to climb the mountainside (today only us, it seemed!), a fascinating cave.

 The steps went on, and on, and on...

 Can you spot the tiny Buddha?

 

Here he is in close up

 

Looking in...

 

 

...looking out

 

 

 Note the baskets of eggs placed in the water to cook

 

 Alice was brave enough to make it half way across this rickety suspension bridge towards the little shrine. I turned back way before, when I saw how many bits of it were missing!