Loi Krathong Celebrations at Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi

As I mentioned in my earlier post Loi Krathong  festival is a visual delight and surreal experience, as  you watch thousands of lamps in small bouquets or Krathongs floating in the Chao Phraya River in the heart of Bangkok.  There are many cultural activities organised for the festival like Thai dance drama based on Hindu and Buddhist epics. While the celebrations in Thailand happen nationwide with tourists and travelers enjoying the lights and fireworks.  But just like we Indians celebrate our festivals around the world Thai people also love to celebrate their festivals like Loi Krathong wherever they are.  So this week a small select gathering was invited by TAT New Delhi ( Tourism Authority of Thailand , New Delhi Office ) to Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel on NH 8 in Delhi.

Since I have already written a detailed blog post about how Loi Krathong is celebrated in Thailand, let me focus on the evening  celebrations at the Radisson Blu Plaza.

Thanks to traffic I reached a bit late and the festival celebrations have already started and a special Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) performance was happening on stage.  Thai Kick boxers are some of the fittest sportsmen in the world and we could see even in demo how agile and powerful the two boxers were. And yes those 6 packs are real no Photoshop work, like some of our Bollywood stars  here.

The Kick boxing demo was followed by a beautiful dance performance by Thai Classical Dancers, who looked as if they have directly taken a flight from some fairy land to showcase a part of Thai culture in India. Though I have seen Thai dance performances in past, this was the first time I was so close to the stage ( only about 3 rows of head were ahead of me ). The movements in Thai Classical dance are very subtle and the dancers move very gracefully as the music and song take the story forward.

The Classical dance performance ended with a decorated long drum procession where Miss Loi Krathong was carried on a palanquin to the pool site where she invited the guests to release the candle lit krathongs in the pool waters of the Radisson Blu Plaza.

As the evening had around 200 guests on the pool side lawns of the hotels, the guests queued up to float the Krathongs in the water.  Soon the pool of the Radisson Hotel became a playground of the little krathongs, leisurely floating as the candle lights flickered and waved at their own reflections in the gentle waves of the pool created by guests trying to make sure their Krathongs travel far and wide. ( Which in this case was the deep end of the pool  🙂  )

As the guests were busy floating the Krathongs in the water, I was busy clicking pictures of the Krathongs and the activity around pool. It is fun to click pictures in the night of the floating krathongs as they slowly start moving together bonded by some sacred pact to stay together come rain or shine.

As the pool was covered with the little lights and the guests were seen looking at their floats to see how far it can go.  Their little game was interrupted by the announcement that dinner is served and authentic by Thai cuisine by Neung Roi Restaurant at the Radisson Blu Plaza was waiting for us.

Needless to say I enjoyed my authentic Thai dinner but as always my focus in any meal is on the desserts and after the spicy Thai food, the desserts were highly sought after.  For the record I clicked some pictures of the fruits and my favorite dessert of the evening – Khao Niew Leung  ( Thai Yellow Sticky Rice with Sweetened Coconut ). Question to the reader : How can somebody resist a dessert whose first name is Khao  🙂 🙂  ??

Overall an evening well spent and I met some of the other fellow bloggers in the evening like contest queen Manjulika Pramod, the poet cum traveler Nisha Jha, blogging guru  Mridula Dwivedi and direct dil say blogger  Akanksha Dureja .

Note about Loi Krathong by TAT New Delhi:

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Loi Krathong is one of the most picturesque and most romantic festivals of Thailand, falling on the night of full moon of the 12^TH lunar (usually in November). People gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water by launching of the Krathong “container shaped like lotus blossom made of banana leaves containing a candle, incense sticks, flower and coins” into the water. Couples come together to float their Krathong and make a wish. It is believed that Krathong that float on the water carry happiness and prosperity, as well as taking away misery. 

This year the actual  date of  full moon  night of the 12^th lunar  is  25^th November 2015, Thais throughout  the country  celebrate  Loi Krathong  on 24^th-25^th November 2015

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