parade tagged posts

In Asia, Thailand 2004 On  30/11/2004  No comments

We arrived in Chiang Mai during the Yi Peng Festival (also called Loy Kratong Festival). Before the trip I had read about the festival in the country, so we tried to schedule that in our itinerary. The festival is based on the lunar calendar; it is commemorated on the 12th full moon of the year.

The first day there we met a Thai family (Pracha, Jam e Gik) in the hotel. They took us for dinner and told us about their culture and the festival Together with them we bough “Krathong” (floating offerings made of flowers where in that top we put a candle and an incense). These are offerings to the mother water as an apology for polluting the waters. We put our offerings on the Ping River in front of the hotel and did same wishes. Another symbol of the festival are the hot air lanterns. Some say that when the lanterns go up they take with them our problems, bad luck, sins… Others say that they are an offering to the Buddha and the light represents illumination...

In America, Bolivia 2001 On  08/08/2001  No comments

I arrived in Uyuni for the commemoration of Bolivia’s independence. The small town was crowed with the parade. I photographed a little until a policeman said that it was forbidden to take photos of the parade. I agreed but I continued photographing when he left. Later another policeman came to me saying the same, then I decided to stop.

There is not much to see in town. It is a starting point to the tours to the salares (salt lakes). There is a good number of hotels and restaurants, a small church, some little stores and very cold nights.

One of the attractions is the cemetery of trains. A 20 minutes walk from downtown takes you to a place full of wagons, old locomotives and tracks. It’s in the middle of nowhere. I can be seen from far away in the desert.