Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Eat your hearts out FarmVille fans, this is the real deal, full bunches of bananas with real rosettes at a real farmers’ market, and a real one-crop festival.

Thailand’s Kamphaeng Phet Province holds their Sart Thai Buddhist Tradition and Banana Festival in September each year.

In 2009 it was during the second week of the month, and in 2010, it all revolves around the 23rd of the month and the full moon (Sart Thai is a Buddhist celebration that follows the full moon).

The Kluai Khai Fair is held to promote the species of banana for which the province is famous.

Over 200 million Baht value of bananas per year are exported from just this one province – roughly 4 million Pounds Sterling – which doesn’t sound a lot until you realise the local produce-market price for one of those full-length bunches is only 200 Baht … meaning roughly one million bunches are in the annual export figures.  Each tree crops once a year, so you can imagine how intensively they’re planted and farmed.

Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. Aside from the common export banana (the Cavendish), there are about 1000 other varieties of bananas. Some bananas are blue, others are orange or red, some are round, and a few are as big as your arm. In the tropics, bananas aren’t only eaten fresh, they’re barbecued, they’re deep-fried, they’re sun-dried, their flowers are used in salads – instead of lettuce, they’re even made into beer and wine.

The local banana dessert, krayasart is a wonderful, sweet, sticky, granola-like concoction made with peanuts, sesame seeds, rice, etc.  For some reason this is mostly made during the banana festival, which has competitions for the best krayasart there.

Thai bananas are far more tasty than those of most other countries, and you wouldn’t believe how many varieties there are, which is just as well, because the festival includes a banana-eating competition (race?).  I can’t envision it as being a particularly captivating spectator sport … unless they have a women’s competition too

Aside from the eating and producer competitions, there are the cookery competitions for  making of krayasat, as well as many entertainment performances provided by both traditional and modern performing arts.  Of course, being Thailand, no festival is complete without a beauty competition and pageant.  Kampaeng Phet is no exception and hosts the Miss Banana Queen pageant during the festival.

Being a rural province, the festival also brings to town a wealth of handicrafts and cottage industry products for exhibition and sales at OTOP markets, set up just for the festival.  It’s said that every temple in Kamphaeng Phet province hosts events of some description during the Kluai Khai Fair & Sart Thai Festival, I haven’t tried to test that claim – it would be impossible.

Kampaeng Phet City is a very quiet, peaceful town in the lower part of Northern Thailand forming a border province between the northern and central regions of the country. It has a famous historical park, protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, comprising the ruins of an ancient city and temple complex.

In that respect it is similar to more famous sites at Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, and Phimai, but has a distinctiveness of its own, with the archaeology and temple styles having more in common with Chiang Mai and Wieng Kum Kam far to the north of it.

Very few tourists visit Kampaeng Phet, which is a shame because it’s a great little town, with a peaceful, and almost untrodden, vast archaeological site.

More about Bananas – they are always in season, providing a continuous, year-round, source of food in developing nations. More than 400 million people depend on them as a staple food source.  In our rapidly changing world, both cultivated and wild bananas are highly threatened by climate change, deforestation, and a new banana-killing fungus. Some scientists predict that the banana industry will collapse within 5-20 years, and that many wild banana species are facing extinction

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

Kamphaeng Phet Sart Thai Tradition and Banana Festival

 

 

Article soure : www.gazlannathai.com

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TAT AND THAI AIRWAYS INVITE FRENCH COUPLES TO GET MARRIED IN CHIANG MAI

Fifteen couples from France and the Benelux countries have tied the knot in a traditional Lanna Thai ceremony held in Northern Thailand as part of a partially sponsored event organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Airways International.
The invitations to get married in Thailand were part of a campaign undertaken in France to attract the weddings and honeymoon market. The ceremonies took place at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai during 18-20 June 2009.
More than 300,000 couples tie the knot in France every year, with many of them choosing a foreign destination for the wedding ceremony and/or honeymoon. The average budget is estimated at 2,100 Euro per person (100,000 baht per person).
Known as the Rose of the North, Chiang Mai was chosen for this campaign because it is the cultural and tourism centre of Northern Thailand. Although it has undergone considerable economic development, it still retains its historic heritage of hill tribes, wood-carving factories and the country’s largest village of traditional handicrafts, as well as the famous umbrella-painters. It is also becoming increasingly well-known as a center of traditional Thai massage, meditation, spas, health and wellness.
In 2007, it attracted 5.35 million visitors, of whom 3.6 million were Thais and 1.7 million foreigners.
The TAT Paris office invited couples to get married in Thailand through its French-language website www.tourismethaifr.com. Interested couples who flew Thai Airways International for their wedding would be provided with sponsored accommodation, transportation, Thai cultural & traditional activities, and a wedding party in Lanna style.
The TAT invited along some French celebrities, such as top super model, Ms. Melanie Rodriguez, winner of Top Model France 2009, Mrs. Celia Jourdheuil, first runner up of Miss France 1999, and Mrs. Soledad Franco, presenter of French Cable TV.
Also in the group were representatives of major travel agents such as Kuoni Emotion, Privilege Voyages, Directouris, Voyagerous du Monde, Best Tour and Voyage Associate, as well as fashion and tourism magazines such as OUI Magazine, Milles Mariages Magazine, www.elleadore.com, le Journal des Grandes Ecoles.
The couples arrived at Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Hotel on 18 June and were given a detailed briefing of the programme and various arrangements. The wedding ceremony took place the following day. On 20 June, the newly-weds enjoyed visits to the renowned Thai elephant sanctuary “Mae Tang River Camp.”
The couples also experienced the Thai Orchid school, participated in a Thai cooking class, visited prominent Chiang Mai tourist spots such as Doi Suthep, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and enjoyed an Aromatherapy Hot Oil Massage.
After the wedding ceremony, TAT invited two celebrity couples to honeymoon in Samui, together with some of the accompanying media.
In recent years, Thailand has become one of the world's most popular travel destinations for weddings and honeymoons. Many couples choose Thailand because they wish to tie the knot in a land renowned for its sense of grace and style, following customs and ceremonies with rich roots in Buddhist culture. The secluded, all-inclusive resorts are perfect for honeymoons.
Wedding planners — either independent or affiliated with tourist hotels and resorts — offer highly personalised services in choosing and arranging the most appropriate activities and events for each client's taste and budget, such as traditional Thai wedding costumes and ceremonies or more contemporary, custom-designed events.
France is now the fourth biggest source of visitor arrivals from Europe, after Germany, UK and Sweden. In 2008, visitor arrivals from France totalled 396,388, up 6.24 over 2007.
In 2009, TAT expects to welcome about 408,000 (+ 3%) French visitors. French citizens get visa-free entry to Thailand. Recent trends indicate strong growth in female visitors, repeat visitors, independent travellers, business travellers, convention delegates, senior citizens and young people.

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Buffalo Racing

You could be forgiven for thinking that a domesticated buffalo is not built for sprinting, but in Chonburi town, the gateway to resorts along the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, farmers have managed to tweak a turn of speed from these working animals that is nothing short of amazing.
The annual Buffalo races, 13 October, are a hotly contested series of sprints across on an open space in front of the town’s municipal offices.
Tourists and the town’s residents turn out for these amazing races that have been featured in the past on CNN and the BBC as a must-see event.
The races are taken very seriously by the owners of the buffaloes. Prizes for the first nose past the finishing line guarantee owners go to considerable lengths to ensure their buffaloes are in tip-top condition.
Clouds of dust rise as these hefty animals pound down the short course at an alarming speed, reminiscent of a stampede. The crowd roars in support of the favourites and the atmosphere is as an enthralling as watching thoroughbred race horses.
Admittedly, mites slower than a race horse, but the buffaloes are no slouches when it comes to making a short dash for glory.
Although this day of fun and competition would succeed with just the buffaloes as the celebrities, there are other activities to make it a worthwhile outing for families.
A fair with food stalls and handicrafts appeals to visitors who love authentic Thai food, snacks and sweets. Then there are the rides for children, concerts of folk music and, of course, a beauty contest where the prize is the honour of being declared Miss Buffalo.
Not exactly the most adhering of titles for an aspiring beauty queen, but it does not seem to deter contestants from seeking the limelight of the catwalk.
Here is a festival that provides photo opportunities to capture an unusual adaptation of the 100-metre dash. Well worth seeing, is always the conclusion of those who make the effort to travel to Chonburi.
If the more traditional version of four-legged races is more appealing then the venue should be the Horse Show, 23 October at the Sanctuary of Truth, also in Chonburi province, on the outskirts of Pattaya The show is organised to commemorate the reign of  King Rama V, the Great, on a day set aside as a national holiday to honour a ruler who initiated many of the developments that ultimately encouraged the economic and social transformation of the nation.

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