22.600
bangkok | thailand | travelled in 2012 | posted on mar 29, 2012
a few days ago, someone on the street handed us a flyer. it was all in thai, with additional photos of monks on it. in broken english we were told that next sunday there would be a buddhist festival with "many many monks". after someone helped us to translate this flyer, we decided to go there.
so, next sunday we got up at 4:30am - why do such celebrations always have to start at 6am? first we took a taxi through the nightly bangkok, then we walked a little, because the taxi driver couldn't make it to his destination: a huge crowd of people, believers dressed in white, and monks everywhere.
22.600 monks are said to have been there. a sea of orange.
one of the organizers of the festival told us that the occasion was the 2600th anniversary of buddha's enlightenment - and there will be more festivities later this year.