Fah Thai Magazine May-June 2017

HAPPENINGS
VIETNAM / LAOS / CAMBODIA
HO CHI MINH / LUANG PRABANG / PHNOM PENH
SPOTLIGHT
Night Sky Revels
A BANG FOR RAIN
The folks in Luang Prabang, the former royal capital of Laos, as well as
those in northeastern Thailand, look skyward in May. The riverside
town will be celebrating the rocket festival, or Boun Bang Fai, marking
the growing season. Held around the May full moon, the annual
festival sees locals fire home-made rockets made of bamboo and
plastic tubes into the clear blue skies in an homage to the heavens.
The furiously flying rocket, says a Laotian legend, is a reminder
to the Rain God that the time has come to deliver downpours to
aid the growing season.
A few days before the launch day, the locals leave their
routine work behind, and head to the temples for rocket making.
Apparently, the folks of Luang Prabang don’t need quantum physics
to make their rockets fly into the blue sky. Led by local monks, who
seem to have the formula, these rural engineers put gunpowder
inside a long pipe. The secret lies in how to make the rocket fly
high – instead of going backwards. Out there, on the empty rice
fields of Luang Prabang, the crowds will gather for the best show
in a rocket launch. The smaller rockets shoot upwards in a fancier
manner while the large ones look too threateningly big to fly. But looks
and a paint job are not the main deal with the “bang fai”. The secret
lies in how to make the rockets fly high and in the right direction.
The higher the rockets go, say the locals, the more rain will come.
Ho Chi Minh rooftops will forever be remembered for the iconic images at the
end of the Vietnam War. American helicopters frantically evacuated people in
the chaotic final days. Before the war’s end, journalists, secret agents and their
facilitators hung out at the Rex Hotel rooftop. Four decades later, at a different
rooftop, one of the city’s busiest rooftops buzz not with helicopters but with
revellers. The Chill Skybar on the top of AB Tower provides hipsters, artists, young
entrepreneurs and beautiful people a panoramic view of Ho Chi Minh’s skyline.
Check out the outdoor bar for the view and Ho Chi Minh skyline. The city glows
in the dark, as you nurse a drink in hand. As the view is breath-taking with the
city lights twinkling below, party-goers are advised to book ahead and dress to
impress. 26th Floor AB Tower, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, chillsaigon.com,
+84 93 882 28 38
OXEN PREDICTION
Bowls of rice, corn, sesame seeds,
beans, grass, water and wine will be
offered to sacred oxen at Veal Preahmein
Square in Phnom Penh on May 14, as
Cambodians break ground on the Royal
Ploughing Ceremony. Preah Reach Pithi
Chrort Preah Neang Korl, as The Royal
Ploughing Ceremony is known in the
Khmer language, is traditionally held every
year in May to mark the beginning of the
agricultural production and rainy season.
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony has
been observed for many centuries at the
initiative of an earlier Khmer king who had
paid great attention to farming conditions
of the people. A practice at the end of a
symbolic ploughing procession before His
Majesty the late King Norodom Sihanouk,
the royal oxen were relieved of their
harnesses and led to seven golden trays
containing rice, corn, sesame seeds, beans,
grass, water and wine to feed. Depending
on what the oxen eat, soothsayers will
make a prediction on whether the coming
growing season will be bountiful or not.
Visitors can enjoy the ceremony by going
to Veal Preahmein Square. The ceremony
is also celebrated in Thailand and Laos.
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