Thread: Rocket Festival in Amnat Charoen

Having been assured a village in 'Ubon' was only 3k from Ubon city we got a 12 hour bus there for the weekends celebrations, rockets, concert, parade and kids becoming monks stuff. I thought if it was too boring I could get into Ubon which I like. When we got there discovered the place was actually 130k from the city, so walking it was out! As it turned out it was not Ubon but Amnat Charoen, well it was in Ubon until 1993, nobody seems to know why they changed it. Most in the village were phoot Thai.

Had no idea where we were staying as a friend of the mrs who had not been before either. I was pretty relieved to see a very posh car pick us up from the bus thinking anyone with a car like this must have a nice house. Well the driver did, but sadly it was a relative of the mrs friend and her house where we were dropped off was the usual shed like affair, like going back 300 years but with electricity. Never mind the people were very nice.

After lounging about all day a party down the road stated off playing Tai and Jintara songs so after a bit we walked down as invited. I was amazed to see they were not playing discs but it was a live singer on a small stage, not professional either but top class and sounded as good if not better than the real singers. The number is on the pic, too tired to go and ask for her details. But if anyone is in the Ubon area and wants a singer for a party you will not find a better one anywhere, she really is outstanding, trust me I know.



Next day was the parade and saw the only falang in the village for the first time, it was his mrs who picked up up in the posh car. Here he is getting a bucket of filthy ditch water chucked over him, nice! well he is an ozzie.



These old flintlock rifles will come in handy if the Chinese invade!



Somebody said this characters name is Pat, could it be Patsycat?



After the drunken parade round the village it was time for the one around the wat for the novice monks, the village is a place where they make those head pillows, they were all over the place but I have never found them in the least bit comfortable



Having never having been to a rocket festival before I was surprised how boring it was, not surprised not many turned up. If you have never been to one I would not recommend sitting about for ages while they set them up for a woosh and it to be over in three seconds. They all seemed the same so I cannot see what the attraction is, probably some finer points like the trails, distance and landing but all lost on me.



The main event at least the morlam cing concert and it is cing not sing or zing as some would have you believe. When cing stated in the mid 80's in caused some outrage and disgust from morlam traditionalists who saw it as vulgar and cheap. At the time though cing was more structured than now with different movements through the performance almost like a play, introduction and so on. Now it has mostly degenerated into anything sung fast and continuous being called morlam cing. Funny that the originators of morlam cing now see it just as their detractors did originally. I have seen 'morlam' cing shows that were nothing more than one luktung song after another just sung faster, but cing has always had a luktung element. Originally no morlam cing show would be without accompaniment by the khean, now it is not always seen and not at this show either. Who cares as long as the dancers put on a good show. Cing dancers are a large part of the attraction of lam cing, or should be if they know what they are doing




This girl certainly knew what she was doing, very good at the cock in pussy dance move and smart enough to wear ear plus too, never seen that before. Would have tipped her but not worth the grief I would have got from the mrs. The cost of all this, the stage, live band and five singers was little more than say 4-5 blokes would spend out on the piss at night in places like SC or NP. These girls danced all night from 9-3am and made their shuffling sisters in go go's look like the lazy spoilt cows most of them are. The concert was free for everyone of course and the beer shop was open al night.

I really like Amnat Charoen and the people there but think I'll give the rockets a miss next time. Like to see that dancer again though!