Like all bloggers, I suppose, I wonder why I didn't start this blog a long time ago. (I did, in fact, but let it drop far too soon, so I'm starting again.) The thing is that so many stories are in the past. You don't have to be old for that to seem to be the case, but there are more stories in the past if you are old, naturally.
The other thing that makes this an odd time to start a blog about life in Phana is that I'm not actually in Phana at the moment. I spend half the year there and the other half in England. I am here for the spring and summer, and in Thailand by the end of the rainy season and through the cool season. It works out just right.
So this blog will be reflections and memories of life in Phana for the time being, and thinking about the things I miss there. Maybe there will be things to say about the things I don't miss, too.
Something I have just missed is the annual Wat Phra Lao festival, three days of Buddhist ceremony, the wat elaborately decorated by the monks, the Buddha images taken out and washed, offerings of candles, incense and flowers, singing and dancing, very loud movies on a giant screen, food and drink. And not much sleep for me because the wat is only about 100m away and the festivities go on into the early morning and start again at dawn.
Perhaps next year I will stay long enough to enjoy Boun Phra Lao again.
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