"home of the Phi Ta Khon festival" a Dan Sai Travel Page by trisanna

Dan Sai is a small city located in northeast Thailand. There are few visitors to this part of Thailand, which is a shame since this area is so beautiful. There are many national parks full of wild jungle in this area. When we went, we had only one objective in mind -which is to see the wonderful Phi Ta Khon festival. Since the area is so close to Laos, we combined a tour of the capital on the way.

The Phi Ta Khon festival is a celebration that marks the begining of the monsoon season. It's also a fertilitiy festival. Men and women will carry big phalluses and enjoy poking them at visitors. Men, women and children dress up in costumes (usually in troops). They wear devilish looking masks made out of palm tree husks-topped with a painted rice basket. They are supposed to resemble ghosts. Everyone is in a wonderful mood and quite mischevious. Locals will ask you to drink their rice wine. One guy, poured some down my back.-was nice on a hot day, but quite sticky. Just try to relax and get into the vibe. I really enjoyed dancing with some of the older Thai women.

The first day is the calmer of the two. People dance several times around a wat accompanied by what it seems to be one long acid rock guitar solo. They start drinking rice wine quite early. There is a small dance competiton (wearing costumes). You have to see the kids dancing to Thai pop music wearing the masks. It's so great!

The second day is much busier of the two. It gets very crowded. There is a large parade -men and women wearing Thai costumes of different time periods of the area. There is also the parade of mud men. They go to the river very early and smear mud all over them.

Dan Sai is quite isolated from other tourist areas. From Bangkok-you have to fly to udon thani and then take a bus to Dan Sai. There are no guest houses or inns in the city. Some people can arrange staying with families. Otherwise, you can stay in Loei(one big hotel there) and take a bus to Dan Sai each day. Make sure to bring a Thai phrase book with you, they don't speak much English up here.