Naga Fire Ball Festival

As many of you know, I was extremely excited to go watch this "Fire Ball" phenomenon that happens in northern Thailand on the Mekong River. It occurs once every year on the evening of the last full moon in October. From what I had heard, round balls of "fire" come up from the river and rise into the sky. According to the local legends, there is a Naga, a big green snake, that lives in the Mekong and protects the cities along the river. It is this Naga that send off these fire balls.

However, for those of us that don't believe in local folklore, I received a semi-logical explanation from a westerner who attested the fire balls to the tides and lunar calender. He explained that they are probably bubbles of methane gas that rise from the bottom of the river continuously throughout the year, but that they can only be seen at certain times when the tide is just right.

So, with the hopes of seeing this wonder, we set out on a crowded hour bus ride to the town of Phonphisai . I would like to say that every person in northern Thailand showed up for the festival, for that is what it seemed like to me, however this would be far too big a hyperbole. But boy was it crowded! So crowded in fact that we left the main viewing area and went to sit about 3 km down river in a less cramped area. We bought a straw mat, settled down in what basically was a marshy, grassy piece of land, and tried to get comfortable along the sloped river side.

There we stayed for a good hour and a half without seeing any fireballs. Feeling quite defeated after all the effort it took to get to Phonphisai, we decided around 9:30 to go get some dinner and then headed home.

Only the next morning would I learn that in the time that we were changing locations, from the crowded main streets to the secluded marsh, some of the other volunteers actually saw some fire balls. I did hear from Nong Khai locals though that this was a rather weak showing of fire balls and that perhaps I would have better luck coming next year.

What I should have been seeing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm64JhA_EZc