After updating the blog at 5AM - I went outside our hostel to watch the Vegetarian Festival activities and parade...the Vegetarian Festival is held for nine days - ALL day long! The street outside our hostel is filled with people dressed in all white, which is suppose to symbolize cleanliness. People fill the sides of the streets selling all kinds of meatless food - mostly fried vegetables and fried dough. In the middle of the street, nearly all day long, people parade doing different ritual activities. At 8:30AM there was the self-mortification, where men would pierce their faces with object of all sorts - knives, metal rodes, guns! It was crazy! Women would parade down the street in bare feet, chanting and bowing down to Buddha statues and shrines stationed along the street. At around 11:00AM there were men parading a huge paper dragon up the street and people would put money in the "dragons" mouth! Then around 1:00 I thought there was an army/war outside our hostel! For a good hour people paraded up the street carrying Buddha statues and setting off fire crackers! The people on the side of the street were all down on the ground, with the food they were selling covered - protecting themselves and the food from the debris of the firecrackers and fireworks! The whole Vegetarian Festival had been such a cultural and crazy experience (I can't wait to post my pictures!) Even now, at 8:00PM people are still setting off the occasional firecracker, outside playing music and enjoying tons of fried festival food!
In between life at the hostel and the Vegetarian Festival, Amanda and I had a full day...Amanda wasn't feeling well, so while she was sleeping in, I took a bus to Patong Beach and enjoyed the beach for a few hours (I love going to the beach in late October!)
Then at 2:00, Amanda and I went Elephant Trekking! We went to a nearby "safari park" and rode elephants! It was so awesome! Elephants are amazing creatures - I was amazed at how they had been trained to sit and stand and even perform! Then after elephant trekking we went to an elephant show, where part of the show was getting an "elephant massage" - I was asked to lay on my stomach and the elephant tapped on my back with his huge foot! Then the elephant gave me a "kiss" with his trunk! The trekking was a bumpy ride, but Amanda and I laughed and enjoyed watching the elephant as he climbed the muddy hillsides and tried to eat plants with his trunk!
After elephant trekking we came back to Phuket Town and got hot oil massages! 60 minute massages for $15USD - it was so relaxing and so needed! Amanda and I laughed because we were willing to pay $15 for a massage, but only $11 to spend the night at our hostel!
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