A Hamster Running

A Hamster Running, a double haiku written by Jacob

Feet are a running

In some repeated circles

The wheel is rolling

The hamster breathing

Tinkling sound of its wheel
Then the hamster stops.

History of Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival

The Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival Starded with the giving of Candles to Monks. Buddhist Lent period is a time where the Buddha stops monks from going outside their chosen temples. Khao Phansa is the day that starts the Buddhist Lent period. On that day people give candles to monks in return for merit (blessings). The monks like this because they learn and study at night, for it is very quite at night. The candles helped them read and study, for there was no electrical light back then. The candle festival started like this:
In Thailand the people held local traditional firework festivals. Fireworks often blew up people's houses and killed many people. When the current king's grandson came he was shocked by the violence of the festival. He changed it around the festival to the candle festival. Communities of people would make candles and the communities that made the best candles would be rewarded with money. It changed over time and is now what it is today, large candles on big floats, stands selling goods, and rides everywhere.

If you want more information please visit this link:
The History of the Ubon Ratchathani Candle - อุบลราชธานีไกด์

Thanks for reading Jacob

A Road Trip in Asia

A Road Trip in Asia

Here in Thailand I have been lagging behind on my journal entries. It’s partly because I haven’t been doing too much, and partly because I couldn’t find my journal. Well, here is my story:

Have you ever been on a road trip for 7 days, and in a tiny car that is so stuffed it can’t even fit a hat in the trunk? Well, I have. The first 2 days of our trip we spent going to Ubon from Phuket.

On the way we stopped at many temples and gas stations. We also stopped at the Surin Elephant Camp. That place was devoted to giving elephants better treatment in captivity. At Surin, a while ago, my mom volunteered to help the elephants. While I was there, I rode some elephants, went to an elephant history museum, went on a walk, and visited some of my mom’s friends. The elephant ride was fun, and it was my third time riding an elephant.

When we finished doing our stuff at Surin elephant camp, we drove to Ubon Ratchathani. We eventually arrived to the hotel that we reserved after a long car drive.

The room we got was on the very last floor and had the highest number in the entire hotel. My parents were expecting a small room (we only got 1) but it was a fairly good size for the price. There were only two beds, so Josh had to sleep on the mattress we had brought and James had to sleep on the couch. I got my own bed, and Dad and Mom slept together on the other bed. Also, there was a singing electric kettle.

When it was night, we went to the dinner buffet. There, I ate papaya salad, some rice, and more.

Next day, we woke up in time for the breakfast buffet. At that buffet, I ate so much food that I don’t think I could write all of what I had in this blog entry. When my stomach gauge changed to full, I left and went to the mall.

At the mall, I got a pair of pants and a swimming suit. I also ate some donuts. When I had finished shopping, I went to the 5^th floor for a swim in the pool.

The pool that was there had two sections. There was the toddler section and the regular pool. They were connected by a line of water long enough to stretch you arms in. There was also were a few waterfalls coming off of greenish-gray rocks. After I played in the pool for a while, I got the card for our room from Dad, and left.

Mine and James' puppets

A wax float at the judging

Some of the delicious food 

Later, after I took a shower and got dressed, I went to the Ubon Candle Festival. The festival was very exciting. There were lots of stands selling everything from fried insects to puppets. There were a few rides, too. While I was waiting for the judging of the floats to begin, we played on a trampoline, got some beverages, and rode a Ferris wheel. I even got a puppet.

After we finished playing in the fair, we went and watched some

of the floats. The floats were coming one at a time, for it was not the parade. The parade was tomorrow morning. My dad said they were getting judged. The floats were almost completely made out of wax, and had delicate carvings of the Buddha and more. The judging of the floats seemed to be going on forever, and it was very late, so Dad ran into the middle of the street to get a taxi motorcycle. My entire family was able to shove themselves in the motorbike’s sidecar and we got to ride the down the back alleys to get quickly home.

Tomorrow, in the morning, we set out to get a taxi for the parade. We were early, so we got some drinks and played on the same trampoline as last time. When the parade started we got some seats, and watched the show.

My brothers and I playing

dancers

A wax float at the parade

The parade had many wax floats. There was also fingernail dancers and marching bands. My favorite dancers was a group that signaled the “eat”, as I heard from the Thai speaker (I speak Thai). They would wave their grass around and dance to some music. The music came from a speaker being pushed behind them.

After some of the parade, Dad got another taxi motorbike, and we set out for our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel Joshua and James left to go to see Lambang, while I stayed home.

The next day we set out to Bangkok. On the way we tried to go into Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. Unfortunately we decided not to go because I wasn’t feeling to well and we couldn’t bring our rental car. Late that night we arrived, and we went inside to the hotel we had reserved. We immediately fell asleep in our beds, for we were tired.

Next morning we woke up and went to the mall next to the hotel we were staying at. In the mall, we went to Kidzania, a place where kids learned how to do occupations. Kidzania is a city built inside a building. It is in an enclosed area with a ceiling made to look like the sky. The currency there was kidzos, and you earned kidzos by doing the many different jobs there.

I am going to name some of the jobs I did. The first job I did was a Canon Photographer in which I went around the busy streets of Kidzania and took pictures of specific memorials and statues. Another Job I did was a veterinarian, where I took care of some animals (not real). I spent some of my Kidzos on an eyesight test so I could do my driving test. The driving test had a driving simulator that was actually quite hard. I made one mistake on the driving simulator, and it was passing the red light. After I passed the driving test I got to drive a mini car around on a mini road.

When we finished in our jobs, we went to the department store. Inside the department store, there was super expensive stuff. The most expensive thing was a scooter, which cost 20,000 Kidzos. I only earned 94 so I would have had to come about 199 more times to get it.

When we exited Kidzania I went to a restaurant where you cooked your own food. There, we had various meats, seafood, and vegetables.

When we finished our meal, we went to the shopping part of the mall. There, my brothers and I looked at Legos.

After we finished shopping, we went back to our room. I shall now describe it.  My family got two rooms. A door connected them. Our room had two beds. James slept on the floor with our mattress while Joshua and I slept in the beds. There was a TV too. Inside the bathroom there was an electric toilet that washed your posterior for you.

On the next day in Bangkok we went to the immigration center, for Mom needed a new visa. The immigration center was huge. One of the coolest things about the immigration center was this room in the middle of it. The room was an immense amount of space with barely anything in it.

After a while of waiting, we left mom and went to explore the city. We walked through a street that had tons of people selling fish. There were a lot of types of fish. We also went to the mall and got haircuts.

When we got a call from mom we went to go pick her up. When we got her, we immediately went back to the hotel. When we arrived, we swam in the pool there.

Next morning we left and traveled back to Phuket. On the way we stopped by a farm and feed the sheep.

Thanks for reading   Jacob