Temple Fair at Wat Bophud

Temple Fair at Wat Bophud

Yesterday we went with some friends to the Temple fair at the local Temple in Bophud, being held from 17th through 28th July. Once the Fair is finished in Bophud, parts of it will travel to another Temple on the island and there will be a fair in that Temple. Bophud houses one of the larger Fairs though, together with the Chaweng Temple.

Not having visited one of these fairs since a long time, because I felt a bit 'over killed' by them, it was nice to go again and kind of re-discover the Fair again.

It was also funny to hear from my Thai friend who was with us, the comment he gave when he saw my pictures, he asked me if I was in Thailand for the first time! Good on him! Nowadays I do note that I take pictures with a couple of things playing in the back of my mind. I like to take pictures for this blog, and I assume that a lot of my readers have never been to Thailand, hence pictures that may look like 'first time visitor' pictures (with all due respect!). Secondly, I also try to catch a certain 'Zeitgeist', because I do notice big differences in the Thailand that I got to know just 9 years ago and the Thailand as it is today and if you followed my blog than you may have noticed that I like the old style Thailand a lot. Anyway, I hope I can catch the right pix!



Having taken plenty of pictures at this Fair, it was difficult to decide which ones to publish. However, in good Thai tradition, the first picture had to be of food and I ended up posting the pictures in the same random order as I took them at the Fair, given a bit of a taste of the fast changing scenery of the Fair.
The picture above shows corn and Jog, the Thai version of cooked rice porridge or congee.

There are also loads of different games to be played, this picture shows darts and balloons, get the picture? 7 darts for 20 Baht, you hit a balloon with each of your 7 darts, you get free choice of the stuffed dolls. Or alternatively spend two or three hundred Baht and you get free choice as well, don't ask how I know this!

Here a more hard core gambling enterprise. A glass ball rolls down in-between a tight pattern of nails and ends up in a numbered gate at the bottom. Players can put 20 Baht notes on triple, double or single numbers. A kind of a roulette feel to it. Very distinctively.

A golden oldie, Bingo Thai style. It was relatively early in the evening and not that many players were participating, later on the tables filled up rather nicely.

More food, soup on wheels. This car comes in a customised version, with a soup cooker!

Since we're at the Temple grounds, there's also parts of the actual Temple that play a part in the Fair. Here people worship Buddha whilst visiting the Fair/Temple grounds.

My Buddhist amulet collectors heart started to beat a little faster, since although I visited this Temple umpty times (i really lost track), I never bought an amulet here, so this was my chance! A local Monk gave me even 100 Baht discount on the amulet I choose and my Thai friend gave me a copy of another amulet today. Thanks Tee!

Here's some classic Isaan food, deep fried bugs! Som tam is probably the best known Isaan style food, but I guess that these bugs get more tongues rolling! Various kinds of bugs are being consumed, amongst other Grasshoppers or Takataen, which are probably most popular. Scorpions or Meleng Pong are also on the menu.

Each Fair has some stages for live music or other shows and here's a picture of the smaller stage. The bigger stages host sometimes very popular Thai artists, like Jintara Poonlarp or others.

Last but not least, another food picture, this time it's Khanom Chak, rice with coconut milk prepared inside the leaves of a nipa palm and then roasted over a charcoal fire. My children love it, as they love the Fairs.

If you see a Temple Fair advertised, go and visit it, if it's your first time, it will leave a nice impression!

As usual, enjoy and I hope you like my post. If you like this blog, subscribe to it, so I know that there's folks out there reading it.

Camille