Chiang Mai ~ Wat Phra Non Rocket Festival

[friscofrankie]

I live down a small gravel alley off a tiny back soi behind a wat. Now Wats are OK neighbors as neighbors go. There's some occasional early mornin' chanting going on that can be pleasant or or a pain in the ass depending on your mood. We get a pretty good Wang Dang Doodle goin on about once every six weeks or so but they shut it down at the stroke of midnight.

The neighborhood is proud of their wat. With one of the largest reclining buddha i've seen out side of Wat Po, and nicely swept grounds with tiny bungalows for the resident monks it's simple, well maintained and, like I said, a pretty good neighbor.

The wat is guarded by some ferocious beasts:


The folks here accept me as a neighbor they all know my name and I only hear "farang from the itinerant workers that have moved into a shack to put up the new Tambon water tower, when they invite me to sit and share some whiskey, beer or a something spicy to eat they'll call out "Hey Farang, come eat & drink with us!" out front of the local moobaan mini mart, Auntie that runs the place corrects them, "His name is Frankie! He speaks Thai!"

Near the wat where the water tower/tank is going up (not that we need it but I guess we can all retire our water pumps when it's done) used to be the "ศาลารวมใจ" (sala ruam jai or community center). This is just down at the end of my soi and although the center has moved about 200 meters down the road the intersection is still the heart of my village.

We are not big participants in most community functions, we're new here the families living here are all related, inter-married and probably have been for a few decades if not a century or two. We are not shunned or ignored. I am probably more accepted that the wife truth be known, just becasue I am here and I walk or ride my bicycle through the streets every day.

Couple of weeks ago the teh Karaoke was going full blast, and There was no way I was going to sleep through it, there was the monotone of an announcer, but he wasn't introducing the singers more of and voice-over.

With a pot of coffee the pre-noon haze began to clear and I thught I'd grab the camera and see what all the fuss was about.

Couple of extra food vendors on the street:


Inside there was a lady beltin out some karaoke, a few women selling little merit bouquets



Moms is making 'em up I guess:


There was a line of pickup trucks with two or three long, decorated cylinders in cradles the monks were blessing thes things and one guy was busy going from truck to truck putting a large Black & white sticker on them.
One of the trucks:


it was all pretty tame, there was a boccie ball contest goin on in the back, non of hte games of skill or chance our wat usually has when there's a do on but that monotone announcer seemed to be coming from out the back gate of the wat along with some other, faintly recognizable noise...

[friscofrankie]

Out back the boys were drinkin Lao Khao and enjoying a bit of sport:


There was a guy packing short pieces of PVC tubing with a dry propellant and the guy in black above would run this down to the launch site. another fella would touch it off, as the fuse burned down the annoncer would get a bit more agitated, no longer the monotone drone I had heard from my room he was quoting odds.

The betting was fast and furious:


The rocket was a small steel fabrication that rode a cable up to an area marked off with numbers between 80 - 100.

My house is right behind that tree on the left:


I took a shot of the top-most region with a rocket just coming up to the 100 mark but the background and picture quality you can;t see mcuh unless you knew what was there. Everyone was drunk, back-slapping drunk man they were havin a great time a monk would come out on occasion and touch off a special rocket; maybe one he had a personal bet on?

I'm pretty sure the wat was getting a piece of the action here I hope they use some fo that money to fix this building up.


I got to talkin to this cop over a shot or six of Maekong. he was red-faced drunk when we started but coherent enough to know I was Khun Frankie lived in that house over there and I should be sure to head over to Huay Tung Tao at 8:00 AM sharp on the morrow if I wanted to really see something.

EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING???? I promised I would.

[chitown]

Another great thread from Friscofrankie!

[friscofrankie]

And I did. It's not often I'm up at 7:00 AM, in fact that's closer to my bed time than it is my morning time but what the hell I woke early for the karaoke I figured I could make out there by eight: I got there at 7:30 and things were jumpin already:


We had to ride up a mudhole of a road to get to where we were goin. But it was easy enough to follow the procession of pickups, motorcycles and pedestrians to "the spot" There were side-hack Hondas laden with food-prep gear, food & booze mired in the mud on road in I wanted to stop and take a pic of everyone pitching in to get 'em unstuck, But I'll be damned if I was gonna get stuck opportunity lost. No need to worry though there were plenty of folks set up with food & beverage.


More folks for the party (mud hole back around that bend inthe road):


They continued to arrive to sounds of gong & drum for a couple hours:

[friscofrankie]

There were caopied areas every where with a group of serious men preparing their rockets for launch:


some were ready:

[friscofrankie]

About this time (8:00 AM or so) I was gettin hungry and a might thirsty I went in search of a meal and maybe a place to observe the festivities.
Tasty lookin but I am not a real fan of the northern sausage with it's lime leave flavor:


Ah! Ribs and Chaang, breakfast of Champions:


The man & wife team running this make-shift restaurant became my gear guards the covered area my base of operations. They kept my plate full the beers replaced on time and my sticky rice and ice containers topped up. I would run all over the the festival shooting this, that and the other thing and return to my beer food and camera bag during the day. Think after four hours I ran up a bill of 250 Baht.

[friscofrankie]

After about an hour-and-a-half things got underway. Firs the group shot of everyone standing rigidly behind the podium:


Some nice things were said and I even felt a bit of civic pride as my tambon and wat were mentioned several times in a flattering light. This festival is hosted by my wat & tambon every year, the entries are not just locals. The rocketeers come from all over Chiangmai and there was one group from Lamphun.

Last years top dog got to launch first this year. a group of three - six men carry the rocket up an approximately 10 meter tall launch pad and get it prepared. The propulsion unit is a long 3/4" PVC pipe and this is inserted once the rocket it ready to launch. All the while a group of supporters below are beating gongs, pounding drums some wave signs and banners.


now this first rocket had a two meter fuse that burnt all the way and then the smoke stopped. The announcer kept repeating "Jai Yhen yhen, Jai yhen yhen" I think we all felt a bit disappointed that the first rocket was going to be dud when:


OOPS!


Does that look like anythng typically Thai to you? I'm pretty sure this not the desired result of launch But I thought ti a pretty good way to get the party going. Everyone else agreed, excpet the folks that built & launched the thing. Ah well next year, eh?

[friscofrankie]

After that the competition begins in earnest:




Clean lift off:


Sa-Weet!


Uh, I'm pretty sure That's the wrong way...


OOPS! (again):

[friscofrankie]

After that spectacular crash & burn a couple take off like rockets:


OH, YEAH!

[friscofrankie]

Next!


This one stole the show it flew about 6 - 700 meters to the south and came down hard. I got shots of it's flight but you've seen one grey streak across the sky you've seen 'em all eh?


it was recovered some what the worse for wear:

[friscofrankie]

Now there was teh judges on a stage they had the best (loudest) sound system in front of me were some redbull girls chatting on their anemic bullhorn, but the steady Thump, thump of dance music was assaulting my body from somewhere behind me.
While another three rockets were positioned and prepared I thought I'd go take a look...

Lookie here! babes!


Who puts a stage behind a tree?


As you will notice no expense was spared in providing beautiful crepe paper garlands to decorate teh stage. and the oil drum fooundation was a steady as they come.

Ah but the announcer has called the next round of contestants we'll get back to the girls, what the hell it's only about 9:45, or so.

[friscofrankie]

I rushed out to the launch area in time to catch what is probably the most spectacular launch of the day!


After that launch I thought I might retire to my adopted families pavilion and wet my whistle, mom had just finished a nice pot of Nam jim jeaw, to go with a fresh batch of ribs and a plate of sticky rice. A fresh bottle o Chaang was opened. I had a good seat for the next launch
Wasn't bad either:


This one, a bit milder a fraction of secnd later on teh trigger I would have got a much nicer fireball:


After three launches there is a lull while three more rockets are set up, gongs gonged drums drummed and some wailing goes on. perfect time for a shot of Lao Khao, what the hell it's a party:

[friscofrankie]

And then the rains came:


The rains came HARD:


The rain fell for abot 45 minutes or an hour I guess. These things need to happen. After all rocket launching is thirsty work and I think everyone need to stop for a few beers some food.

As soon as the rain stops it recycles back into the air to fall again, some where else:

Then after the rains? Well, it's wet. Why not wait a bit longer and see how the party's going?

[Happyman]

Keep 'em coming !
After many years working in open cast mines I love BIG BANGS !!


( next time take a video so we can hear the sounds ! )- please!

[friscofrankie]

THe dancing girls, having a strong union rule agains dancing inthe rain had retired to their dressing rooms. These good country folk were fine with that:


This guy could actually sing! damn fine singing it was too!


After a few more minutes break the dancing girls came back and yours truly was asked to come up on stage and cut a rug with a few of 'em. I declined






"Awright ol' timer, I told you keep yer mitts off the babes!"


Rockets?


What rockets? bring on the Babes!

[friscofrankie]

Waterlogged and waiting. I never saw it take off:


I stayed on until about 13:30 or so. Not another rocket was launched.

The judges stage had turned into a cocktail party. The dancing girls were busier than cattle town whores on payday and the whole sea of people were feelin no pain.
I had run out of memory card on my camera taking over 150 shots of the day in Raw Mode. I started the day with 400 baht in my pocket, No ATMs out there. I had Chaang for breakfast, I had Chaang for break and a couple more for lunch. A never empty plate of barbequed ribs, sticky rice and nam jim jeaw when ever I came back to base and I left with 150 baht in my pocket.

I spent the day bullshitting with old men that spoke very little thai and their northern dialect was tough to decipher. We shared beer from my bottle and lao khao from theirs. I was sad to leave at such an early hour as I am sure things would have liven up even more, and who knows? few more shots of that white lightning them girls mighta got me up on stage.

While I was there it dawned on me there was not one whit face in the crowd. So I looked, not hard looking just paid attention. Not one.

On the way out the mud was deeper and stickier. there was less traffic. Flying through the mud was fun. Scraping it off he bike less so.

Over the last couple weeks since that festival I get more invites to drink and eat. people that were civil or even friendly before are friendlier. they don't just nod and ask how are you they engage me in conversation, five or ten more years of this shit I just might become a member of this here community.

[El Gibbon]

Great and thanks for the effort.

E. G.

[Marmite the Dog]

Great thread Frankie.

[darksider]

Well done Frankie

[klongmaster]

Up to your usual standard FF: for which thanks are due...much easier just to enjoy the day without thinking about your mates on TD so we appreciate the effort...

this girl looks well impressed with her dance partner...

[DrAndy]

nice thread

you have a way with finding the best side of life in and around CM

even if you have to get up early

[friscofrankie]

^ or stay up late

[daveboy]

Nice thread green on the way

[Thaiguy]

Really enjoyed this report - haven't been to the roccket festival but am off to Chiang Rai soon so will ask to get down and dirty with the locals.
Chiang Mai will be a must -.
Loved the pics too .

[sunderlandstephen]

Excellent , thanks