Motorcycle Tours Thailand.

Guided motorcycle tours in the Mae Hong Son area of Northern Thailand.

Thai Festivals .

Thailand has many festivals throughout the year, some are religious some social and some are national civic ceremonies.

Whatever the reason, festivals in Thailand are celebrated enthusiastically with everyone getting involved.

The most important social ceremonies include, Songkran and Loy Kratong.

Songkran.

The water splashing festival and Thai New Year is held in April, its a great time to be in the North of Thailand but not a good time to be traveling on a motorcycle. We don't run tours during Soncran.

 

Tour Dates.

JANUARY 2009. OFFROAD TOUR, JANUARY 12th to 22nd 2009.
This tour is confirmed, we now have some bookings, places available.

FEBRUARY 2009 ONROAD TOUR, 20th February to 25th 2009.
This tour is confirmed, we now have some bookings, places available.

Loi Kratong

Is our favourite festival of the year. It takes place over three days during the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, which usually falls in November.

Loi Kratong when participants ask water spirits to sail away their troubles in their "Kratong" little floats.

There is also " Yi Peng" which occurs around the same time where participants float away all there troubles in paper lanterns released into the night sky. It is believed that by releasing the paper lanterns into the sky you will release your bad luck and get a fresh start.

For the three nights of the festival people release small floats known as Krathongs with offerings that include incense, candles, flowers and money into the rivers and lakes..
The River Ping in Chiang Mai becomes a river of lights however the greater spectacle is seen in the field where everyone releases the floating lanterns.
Small paper hot air balloons rise like lanterns high into the sky complementing the floats drifting on the water.
Fireworks are let off everywhere particularly on the banks of the Ping River and there is a parade each night in Chiang Mai.

Loi Kratong is the Thai festival which will interest guests of MCTT
Motorcycle Tours Thailand run a tour during Loi Kratong. It is timed so that we get an evening in Chiang Mai to enjoy the lanterns either at the end or at the start, before setting off on the bike tour.

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Also in November, in its third week, occurs the Elephant Round-Up in Surin, Northeast Thailand. Including folk dances and traditional performances, the Round-Up's main attraction is its one hundred elephants, who demonstrate their majesty through staged wild-elephant hunts and reenactments of medieval, martial elephant parades.

Straddling November and December is River Kwai Bridge Week, which features a sound-and-light show at the famous bridge in Kanchanaburi, archeological and historical exhibitions, folk dances, and rides on trains powered by steam locomotives of World War II vintage.

We can happily organise tours to the Surin elephant round up festival or the River Kwai bridge week

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Other Festivals

The festival year begins in Thailand, with New Year's Day. January 1st
The Thai new year is in April but Thais are happy to celebrate the January 1st. New Year.
The celebrations involve a great deal of eating and drinking, the forging of ill-fated resolutions not to drink, the exchange of presents, and the explosion of fireworks, lots of fire works,

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year - the date varies from year to year due to differences between the Julian and Chinese calendars. Many people in Thailand are of Chinese descent, so the holiday is widely celebrated. Chinatown in Bangkok is an exciting place to be at this time.

Is a good time to come on a tour, timing your visit so that the end of your trip is spent in Bangkok enjoying some of the celebrations in China town, however Chineses New Year is celebrated through out Thailand.

China town Bangkok is busy enough at the best of time but it grinds to a halt around Chinese New Year due to the sheer numbers of visitors to this part of town.

Chiang Mai Flower Festival

Usually the first weekend in February
Features increasingly international beauty contests as well as parades of floats bedecked with local flowers in full bloom.

Makha Bucha Day

falls on the full moon of February.
It commemorates the unplanned assembly, ordination, and subsequent enlightenment of 1250 of the Buddha's disciples. On any 'Bucha Day' - bucha being a cognate of the Sanskrit puja - Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike are encouraged, for the sake of accruing merit, to vien tien (literally, 'circumambulate candle'). They find the temple of their choice and, carrying a candle, walk clock-wise around the temple three times.

Pattaya Festival

Early in April,
Takes place in the southern resort town of the same name. The festival includes beauty parades, floral floats, and fireworks.

The Thai New Year

April 13th,
The Thai New Year is ushered in by the glorious 'water-war' festival of Song Kran. Chiang Mai is a popular place to celebrate Song Kran for 5 days the city is awash with water so much is splashed about it generates its own thunder storms.
A common sight in Thailand is paintings of ancient Siam or Lanna, depicting villagers gently and mirthfully dashing water on each other.
Nowadays, while Buddha images in temples and homes are still washed with rose scented water, the scene on the street is rather more irreverent.
For three days, from dawn until dusk, everyone - young and old, Thai and non-Thai - douses, shoots, and splashes everyone else with water. It is all-out war, but the ammunition is gentle and invigorating - some people have huge ice cubes in there tanks some just use water from the canal, during this, the hottest time of the year.

In May, the beginning of the rice-planting season is recognized by the Royal Ploughing Ceremony. With the King presiding, rituals and ceremonies are used to predict the rice crop of the forthcoming year. On May's full moon occurs the preeminent Buddhist holiday of Visakha Bucha. This celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha.

Also in May is the Rocket Festival, in which villagers of the arid Northeast build enormous rockets and blast them into the sky as a request for plentiful rainfall from the imminent monsoons. Parades, dancing, and lots of wassail (hot punch drink) precede the launching.

Around this time a number of fruit fairs all over the countryside revel in local fruits - durians, rambutans, jackfruits, etc. Major fairs can be seen in the provinces of Rayong, Chanthaburi, Chachoengsao, and Hat Yai.

July's full moon heralds Asanha Bucha Day, the anniversary of the Buddha's first sermon. Asanha Bucha also anticipates Kao Pansa, the three-month period of Buddhist penitence and fasting.

The reigning Queen's birthday falls on 14th August, and is also Thailand's Mother's Day. Government buildings, largely in Bangkok, are festooned with colored lights, while across the country huge portraits of the Queen are erected and illuminated.

During the Vegetarian Festival, taking place in October in Phuket, islanders of Chinese descent restrict themselves to a vegetarian diet for nine days. The festival's first day includes parades and displays. Also in October, a number of country fairs featuring regattas take place, the most famous in the northern province of Nan.

More about the River Kwai area

River Kwai festival week is in Nov - Dec

Kanchanburi (bridge over the river Kwai) is not too far from Bangkok, but its a long slow bumpy train journey, the alternative is a long slow bumpy bus journey.

but we are happy to organise a bike tour in this area.

when in the area we can visit Tiger Temple.

The Monks look after a large number of tigers at the temple. The tigers were all reared from cubs they are all orphans who were deserted by their mothers, The story goes that the wee hungry tiger cubs wandered into the hill villages.

No i didn't believe it either. anyway it gives us tourists a chance to get face to face with real live big tigers and if you manage to come away uneaten you will take home some amazing pictures and memories.

The most important royal holiday occurs on 5th December, the reigning King's Birthday. He gives an influential address, and food festivals, dances, songs, speeches, and candle-vigils honor him.

To close the year out, the Thais, though almost exclusively Buddhist, mark Christmas in a very modern, Western way - by putting up decorations, wearing Santa Claus hats, and hitting the department stores.

Thailand is a great place to be for Christmas time if you don't like Christmas....

And then its New Year celebrations all over again!

Thais would surely agree that the uncelebrated life is not worth living. Nearly any auspicious event is turned into an excuse for exuberant celebration.

and may it ever be so.

A Calendar of Thai Festivals

When: 1 Jan
What: New Year's Day
Why: Western Calendar
Where: Everywhere

When: Around Early Feb.
What: Chinese New Year
Why: Chinese Calendar
Where: Everywhere, Especially Trang and Bangkok's Yaovarat District

When: Feb. Full Moon
What: Makha Bucha Day
Why: Buddha's Ordination of 1250 Disciples
Where: Temples

When: Early April
What: Pattaya Festival
Why: Why Not?
Where: Pattaya

When: Apr 13-15
What: Song Kran Festival
Why: Thai New Year, Homage to Water, A Chance to Cool Down
Where: Everywhere, Best in Chiang Mai

When: Early May
What: Royal Ploughing Ceremony
Why: Predict Forthcoming Rice Crop
Where: Sanam Luang Grounds, Bangkok

When: May Full Moon
What: Visakha Bucha Day
Why: Celebrate Buddha's Life Cycle
Where: Temples

When: Ongoing Spring/Summer
What: Fruit Fairs
Why: Celebrate Local Fruits
Where: Rayong, Chanthaburi, etc.

When: July Full Moon
What: Asanha Bucha Day
Why: Beginning of Buddhist Lent
Where: Temples

When: 14 August
What: Queen's Birthday
Why: Queen's Birthday!
Where: Everywhere, Especially Bangkok

When: October
What: Vegetarian Festival
Why: Celebrate Vegetarianism
Where: Phuket

When: November Full Moon
What: Loy Krathong
Why: Homage to Mother Water, Redemption of Sins
Where: Everywhere

When: November Third Week
What: Elephant Round-Up
Why: Celebrate Elephants
Where: Surin, Northeast Thailand

When: Nov/Dec
What: River Kwai Bridge Week
Why: Commemorate Bridge
Where: River Kwai Bridge, Kanchanaburi

When: 5 December
What: H.M. King's Birthday
Why: King's Birthday!
Where: Everywhere

When: 25 December
What: Christmas
Why: Shop, Decorate, and Wear Funny Red Hats
Where: Everywhere