Halloween in Thailand and The Walking Market of Khon Kaen

Happy Halloween folks, it's always been one of our favourite nights of the year as back in Dublin everyone makes a big effort and a good night is always had, usually ending in 5 of the guys all going as the construction worker from the village people. So when we spent 2 hours driving to every shopping centre in Khon Kaen, asking if they had face paint, we always got the same response “OH for Halloween” .”yes yes Halloween” we'd reply happy they understood and knew the holiday, but “Yeah don't have” was always the response. That or they would just giggle and shake their heads as I explained face paint.

So on Friday we helped decorate the bar “Supan's house” with Rainny and had ourselves an arts and craft day. Turned out to be fun as we got everyone involved and the placed was ready for Halloween, Rainny had a few black lights so it made everything look that bit better for the party, we made spider webs from wool and I drew a few pictures of spiders and skeletons and we all cut out happy Halloween for the front of the bar to entice some people in, not realising they may not know of the holiday. So we either introduced them to it or scared them half to death.

That day Rainny brought us to a market where they had a few masks and Halloween items so we left happy. I made an attempt at making my own costume but as I'm living out of bag I didn't have much to use. I tried to make a monster carrying a man in a box costume (something I had seen online).. if that makes sense.. probably not so there's a pic, unfortunately it wouldn't stay together, so I opted for the mask only, I did try everything even using an entire role of sellotape trying to keep it held up but to no avail.

The night was a success and alot of others turned up in fancy dress and we took over the stage with some dancing, wait... a lot of dancing.. There was special offers that everyone indulged in for buckets, yep buckets of Rainny's secret cocktail. We never did find out what was in them but everyone seemed to enjoy them.. well the ones that could remember the next day :)

We finally found some black and white makeup so Kristine dressed in a “Day of the Dead” costume which is a Mexican festival and a celebration for family and friends who have passed and the loved ones pray for them. It is also celebrated on the 31^st of October so seemed fitting .

The scariest costume of the night had to go to the bar owner, she had rented a traditional Thai dress but made it a bit scarier by dawning some white face paint and dripping blood, and spent part of evening walking around with a candle under her chin which added to the affect.

The next night we went to the night market to see what they had to offer and it was good fun, nice food and some buskers playing in the streets.
It is on every Saturday night in Khon Kaen city and two huge roads are taking over by markets and and food-stands which takes a few hours to get around Some of the items on offer were shit, "pardon my French" but no kidding they were selling fake shit on the street under the banner“shit” from Khon Kaen. 
A nice souvenir for any one at home but I decided against it :)

So with sore heads in the morning we had to go to a summer camp at Kristine's schools which is held every 3 months. It comprises of 4 hours of playing games with the kids so we sat in for a while met the principle again and walked around watching some techniques used by the teachers and some game ideas for Kristine. We took it easy that night as Halloween had taken it out of us.

Off to Laos in the morning for our first visa run!!