Dansai Ghost Festival in Loei Province (reposted with pics)

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fountainhall

Dansai Ghost Festival in Loei Province (reposted with pics)

Post by fountainhall »

This is an updated repeat with pics restored of the thread made in February where all the pics were deleted by the dreadful photobucket.

One of the joys of living almost anywhere in Asia is the plethora of local Festivals. Apart from the obvious ones of Songkran and Loi Krathong, here in Thailand the famous Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani is one. The Dansai Ghost Festival in Loei Province is another. Known as Phi Ta Khon this is by far the best-known and most fun event of the country’s many ghost festivals.

Many living in Thailand will have never even heard of Loei Province. It is green and hilly, tucked away west of Udon Thani with the Mekong as its northern border. It boasts a number of national parks, waterfalls, lots of walking trails – and even a rather good vineyard. Loei the capital is easy to get to with Nok Air and Thai Air Asia - both having regular daily flights, the number depending on the time of year. As I write there are 2 Nok and 1 Thai Air Asia fight. From Loei it’s about a 90-minute ride by car or minibus to get to Dansai itself.

Dansai has less than 10,000 inhabitants. Its one problem when I was there in 2014 is the lack of accommodation with just one major hotel, the Phunacome Resort situated on the hill above the town. This puts up its rates for the Festival weekend, but I was lucky. When I booked on agoda very early I got the standard rate. Obviously agoda had not been informed of the Festival price increase. When the hotel later contacted me and said the price should be around Bt. 1,200 per night higher, I basically said – so what? They did not press and I got my accommodation quite cheaply! Walking down to the town from the hotel is no problem, and the Resort has a regular on-call minibus service to get you back up the hill.

There are a few guesthouses around, but the town is packed during the Festival and you may find you have to stay as far away as Loei city. That only means you will have to get transport to and from the town on the main day of the Festival Parade – not in itself a major issue, just a hassle and far less easy than being in or near Dansai itself. As ceejay pointed out in his response, there is another much closer hotel of roughly the same quality as the Phunacome Resort – the Phuphanam Resort. But it is still about 10 kms from Dansai. I am sure it will run some form of transport to the Festival but I have no idea of times and frequency. Since this thread originally appeared, the Phuphanam’s website has changed to http://www.phuphanamresort.com/index.html

The date of the Ghost Festival is fixed quite late and in accordance with Buddhist and local traditions. So if you wish to book early for next year, you’ll have to keep your eyes on the internet after the start of the year. The TAT should list it here - https://www.tourismthailand.org/Events-and-Festivals

The Festival is split into three days, only the first two of which are of real interest to visitors in my view; the first when a lot of those taking part in the next day’s Parade try out their costumes and do some rehearsals – followed by the day of the Parade itself.

The masks and outfits of those in the Parade are hugely colourful and obviously take days to make. Many hundreds get dressed up as ghosts. The Parade on Day 2 opens with speeches from assorted dignitaries – LONG speeches which no-one listens to. Three parachutists then descended from helicopters marking the actual start of the Parade.

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Lots of young children get in on the act, some with full costumes, others just with masks. Others just watch, including novices from the local temple.

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As with many local Festivals around Asia, fertility rites play a part. It is not uncommon to see ‘ghosts’ with large penises and penis symbols abound. The lady below had a whale of a time poking everyone in the bum with her elongated organ!

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And naturally there are also traditional elements with various groups participating in Thai dancing, including some handsome guys. The Festival’s agricultural background is also marked with groups of older men parading covered in mud.

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But mostly the Parade consists of ghosts of all types, including the year I was there a skeleton orchestra.

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Even after all the festivities, it’s fun just to stay behind in town to watch everyone walking home, their headdresses off as a relief from the stifling heat. Some of the guys were extremely good-looking!

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I went on my own purely for the Festival with no thoughts of a hook-up. In such a small town, I am not sure how easy hook-ups would be over the Festival week-end, but there would surely be some in Loei if you elected to stay in that city.

ceejay responded to the post (most of it attached below). I fully endorse his comments about doing your best to see more of Loei Province. Geographically it is a lot more interesting that other parts of Isaan and you can always pop in to the winery to sample what I hear are its very good wines.


#2 Re: Dansai Ghost Festival
by ceejay » Fri Feb 10, 2017 4:30 pm


The reason why the actual date is published so late is that it is chosen by a local wise man, usually not long before the event. Fortunately, he always chooses a Saturday for day 1!

Something is often omitted from reports of the festival. Early (very early - I got up at 3.00 am for it). On the first morning there is a procession to the Mun river to secure a blessing on the town. A young man dives to retrieve a crystal from the river (always finds it too) and it's carried back to the main Wat in town. The Wat is then circled three times, anti clockwise with rifles being fired at the four corners to scare off malevolent spirits.

As I understand it, there is a parade on the first day but, after the early start most of the pm is free. Then the main parade takes place on the Sunday, followed by a party in the centre of town. This goes on until at least midnight and gets younger, and rowdier, as the night goes on . . .

There is another resort hotel reasonably close by - The Phuphanam http://www.phuphanam.com/index.php/contact-us. When I was there it was good value. The pictures of the accommodation are a reasonable reflection of what I found - but that was 5 years ago. I'm always reluctant to actually recommend a Thai hotel based on experience of more than a year old (how they can change). The resort is part of a group that owns a hotel in Bangkok and they transferred staff to Dansai for the festival - so it was adequately staffed and had English speaking staff. Actually, they had little to do, because most of their bookings that year were Japanese. There had been a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan a few weeks before, and all their Japanese clients had cancelled in solidarity with the victims of this. Apparently it was felt to be shaming in some way to go abroad enjoying themselves when so many people were still suffering in the aftermath of the disaster.

Interestingly I had the same experience as Fountainhall - booked early on Agoda and paid standard rates rather than festival special rates.

Loei province is very beautiful and worth some time travelling around. I would recommend having your own transport (I hired a driver and car for a few days) especially if you are going to stay in Dansai itself.
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Re: Dansai Ghost Festival in Loei Province (reposted with pics)

Post by Gaybutton »

Your photos are always incredibly good. I wish I had such skill.
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Re: Dansai Ghost Festival in Loei Province (reposted with pics)

Post by Bangkokian »

Super quality photos. Thanks.
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