In answering this question with a descriptive paragraph that vividly recreates the experience and atmosphere, 1) write at the scene, that is, make sure you have a piece of paper and a pen with you during that night to record sights, sounds, smells, thoughts; you can write the entire paragraph in the moment or jot down details to work into a paragraph later, and 2) let details suggest how you feel; whether you spend it in a public place or in private, whether it’s an eventful night or a regular night, in describing your loy kratong night and what you think about it, don’t say what your feelings or opinions are, but rather let the details and the way you present them—your word choice, imagery, phrasing, sentence structure, order, logic—suggest them for you.
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Roundtable Conversation 
I was walking alone and looking around as I saw many faces of strangers clipping along. Some people stopped and said hi to their friends; I, on the other hand, stopped at no occations. Live song was playing on the backgrounds while my eyes were on the telephone typing the work concentratedly. The smell of burning oil from the pan full of floating junk food filled the air made my stomach growling .I was dizzying from a vast amount of knowledge from reasoning class, and my shoulder hurted from the weight of book i have carried. “Ahem!!Excuse me!” I heard the voice from behind my back; with a puppy face I slowly turned to look at where the voice came from. “Hi” she said coolly; excitedly, My arms were outstreching and suddenly squeezed her like I never want to let go. “You made it.”I said and gave her a for-little-kid-only smile. A reunion with bestie from my middle school for the first time in years brought back memories of weird things we did together. I walked around looking for food to fill up the empty stomach. Despite my hunger, I couldn’t decide on what to eat seeing that there are rapunzel’s-hair lines in front of each stalls; so my friend and I had the joy of celebration for dinner instead.
Although I am in my bedroom on the second floor with a huge pile of textbooks, I know there is a lot going out there. I know it from the voice and noise I hear. The sound from my 40 inches television cannot drown out Loy Kratong atmosphere’s sound. Loy Kratong songs are played over and over; however they do not sound like a proper song. The origins of the voice are from everywhere; such as from temple near my house, from my neighbor, from the local bar, from drinking parties and occasionally from television. They are not played at the same time so they are mixing and finally create Loy Kratong in polyphonic version. Loy Kratong song is not the only song blustering tonight, there are also thai county songs, thai pop songs in original and speed remix version. The volume of speed remix songs are turn up until reach the maximum. The beat is so hard and so furious that the speakers could blow up. The local spokesman’s monotone voice blares and echoes from the temple’s speakers. What he speaks is the same every year; reciting the history, the importance of Loy Kratong followed by promoting the temple and elaborating how fun and fascinating the festival is. He might remember all things he says by heart, so do I. His voice is familiar to me, I have heard his voice since I was in first grade or maybe kindergarten. His voice is an old man’s. His voice and his tone do not change; it is bass, firm, not dynamic and sometimes unclear as if he spoke under water. After a long time of studying and doing homework, it is 4 pm. Spokesman’s voice has already gone. My eyelids are growing heavy and heavy so I turn off the light, put myself into bed, close my eyes and ready to temporally escape from the crazy world. It is not that easy tonight. Falling asleep with the Boom! Pow! Pop! and Weeeeeeee Pop! is a challenging task. You have to be very concentrated to overcome this challenge. By the way those sounds do not startle me but not to my five fainthearted dogs. They cannot differentiate between the bomb sound and the fireworks sound so they keep running in panic struggle to find somewhere to hide and make noises. So what I hear is the Boom! Pow! Pop! interrupted by the Woof! Woof! It takes forever for me to wipe out those sounds from my hearing and get some sleep. Although the Halloween has passed, I am sure that tomorrow I will be in Zombie mode.
I found that this piece is so funny! HAHAHA
You illustrate the situation with a lot of sounds and it’s pity that you cannot sleep that night.
Anyway, you explain the moment so well like it was a satirical comedy. I love it. :))))
When I walked through the front gate of Chulalongkorn University, my eyes inevitably caught sight of the large pond. By the two sides sat many people with vessels made of banana leaves, in other words “Krathong”. The sky, at that moment, seemed to comprise of celestial wonders. The climate went gradually torrid. My friends and I were dank when the heat collided with our bodies. Had we adjourned to the adjacent shopping complex, we would have not been like that. When the time flied, the area was incredibly populous. A huge crowd was bound for each side of the pond with Krathongs in their palms. As soon as I got to a side, I was jostled by a man beside me. Of course, I was unavoidably bothered by incense. It was reminiscent of noxious fume. I was about to have a stroke, but my friend named “Klao” sensed a situation; therefore she gave me an inhalant. Furthermore, the distant clatter of the crowd gave me a headache. Half an hour later, it was high time we had to float Krathong. We were concurrent at the bank. I could gaze many Krathongs from others. They were scrupulously handcrafted. For instance, some were made of foam. Some were made of loaves. Some were unbelievably made of ice-cream cones. Still, mine was made of banana leaves since it could preserve environment. I initially released it to the pond. It was likely to be ramshackle. Suddenly, due to the overweight, Krathong inverted along the current. Little did I know what to do next, so I let bygones be bygones. My friends turned to me and chuckled incessantly. Shortly afterwards, we were very starving and fatigued. We headed for a food stall to buy something edible, which was well-arranged settled down with others onshore.
The moment you spent with your friend is so lovely!
You expressed the feeling well. I can feel that It was quite annoying to meet the big crowd like that. I love your word choices i.e. you don’t use simple words like “tired”, but use “fatigued” or new words for me like torrid, reminiscent, scrupulously etc. I guess you have a big bank of vocabulary.
PS. i like the kratong made of ice-cream cones! ><
I went to Chulalongkorn University for attending Loy Kratong night. the first things that I saw is the crowded of people came here by same purpose. I tried to follow my friends otherwise I went to wrong place. There is much food along the streets inside Loy Kratong night. I ate softcream, Korean Icecream, it was so tasting when I saw it first, but in my opinion it was so expensive. Subsequently, I saw a mini concert from Architecture students on the left side of street. Their songs were so excited, activated and also funny. Although I didn’t close to them, I could also hear the songs loudly. As I was walking and eating along the sreet I was accidentally bumping with others. I said “sorry” to them. My friend and I looked forward to see the parade of My faculty, but It’s too late. The parade and assorted show have already performed. Lastly, I feel little sorry this year, Now that every year I will participate in Loy Kratong festival with my family.
Loy Kratong festival at Chulalongkorn University has always been famous for its delicious foods and the lively atmosphere, so this year I decided to join the festival there. It was late in the evening when the festival started. The sun sank down, the clouds faded in and the dark slowly blackened the sky. However, the green yard in front of the King Rama V alongside with the King Rama VI statue, in which I stood, was filled with the warm light from the light bulb of food stalls. And it was the sweet-scented smell of fried pork coming into my nose that stopped me from wandering around. It was not so hard for me to soon realize that the weather was so hot that I could not feel any breeze and I soon found myself standing with rivers of sweat and smelling fishy among a bunch of people crowding and pushing each other like sardines in a tin. So I escaped the crowd and tried to call one of my friends who was not there yet in order to float the Kratong together, yet there was no signal. I had to sit patiently waiting, doing nothing for half an hour until I decided to do it without her. Alongside the huge pond, the area was filled with chaotic scene; tons of garbages lying on the concrete floor, noisy sound made by the musicians and the Kratong seller and hundreds of Kratongs floated in the water which made the pond looked grubby. My eyes were hurt and my respiratory system was destroyed by the smoke of the joss stick. Once I could get out of there, I found myself struggling to take my overtired body back home. There were a lot of people standing in the dark trying to wave at a taxi with a red ‘occupied’ sign which always ended up rejecting the passenger. I decided to take the bus to the BTS station but then shortly got stuck in the traffic jam. It took much more time than usual for me to arrive at my cozy home. But even after all those messes, I secretly admitted to myself that I still want to go there again, but next time with a different purpose; to enjoy the food not to float the Kratong.
The phone in my hand showed me three numbers, 7.41. I recognized myself I was standing in the middle of somewhere. I was standing on some soil or grass. No one surrounded me in the radius of 3 meters. I looked up. The sky was closed and in a very dark blue. I could see rounded pale yellow moon glowing perfectly as if the light was expelling the clouds away. I turned to look left and then right. Without any breeze touched my skin or any smell kicked my nose, people in white and black were spreading in small groups and secretly scattering around the area. Chit-Chat, the sound were blurring here and there and everywhere like it was echoing in my ears. The lawn somehow was crowded but loosens compare to the size of it. At both side of the lawn, more people cluttered but no one sensed the plants dying flatted beneath their feet. Pity them, the people were murderers again. I turned my head to look around once again, my friends called me from far away. We met. Now the numbers showing on my phone changed, 7.45. The clouds filled the empty spaces in the sky you couldn’t see the moon anymore. Stiflingly, we then determined to get out to the pond. Steps by steps, the wind was still sleeping. Steps by steps, burning candles smells were now trampled my nose. Steps by steps, we were squeezing ourselves through the crowd. I looked into my phone, its changed once more, 7.47. We were now standing by the pond and those people too. The pond wasn’t looked graceful as I expected it would be. Mostly, the kratongs were unlighted and sticking and resting in a lump at the rim. Smoke flowing up in the air, it was dark throughout the whole place that the light from those candles couldn’t do any help. The kratongs looked unpleasantly like greenish trashes. “What were the people thinking?” I wondered.
I feel that you were not delighted much to join the festival because of the way you looked at the time or the fast procession of description or the last sentence. I like your way of expression; no need to tell how you feel but others can understand from your action. it’s great.
Walking across a short wooden bridge to an old lake pavilion, I heard my footsteps echo in the chill air. I didn’t know if it was the purring breeze or something else that gave me these stupid goose bumps.
The familiar lake seemed different that night. It was like Dr. Jekyll had become Mr. Hyde. The summery, turquoise lake with cheerful splashes of fountain was no more. In stead, it was charcoal black and the surface of it was silently still, as if hiding whatever dark secrets beneath its surface.
Its “empty” surface, to be precise.
I didn’t remember the last time I joined our village’s Loy Kratong night. But what I did remember was that there were countless Kratong blinking in the lake like stars dancing in the sky. I could smell the warm candle smoke and feel the joy and youth in the air. I still remembered the kids running everywhere, parents and grandparents enjoying conversations and old stories and young couples making wishes.
But all of those were absent that night.
“Maybe I’m here too early,” I thought to myself and decided to wait a little longer.
Minutes ticked by, yet there was no sign of a single soul. And besides those flickering neon fluorescent lights, attched to the palm trees around the lake, there was no evidence of celebration either. No deafening Thai country song. No drunk people yelling unintelligible lyrics. No dazzling, iridescent flowers blooming in the black canvas of the sky.
The only noises that filled my ears were those of rustling leaves, croaking frogs and chirping cicadas. I usually enjoy this serenade of nature, but that night, they just sent chills down my spine.
I looked up at the pitch-black sky in search of the moon, hoping that her gentle radiance would lighten up the atmosphere, but it was no use. She kept her face hidden behind that thin veil of smoky cloud, hiding from me. Or maybe, from something else.
I looked at my watch. It’s time to go back to my safe, cozy home.
i love this!!
it’s awesome. I can see or feel or hear everything in this writing. Your illustration is really clear and beautiful. Phrasing is fantastic, and there is also metaphor. Cool.
(oh sorry it is not metaphor but simile -///-)
“Get ready everybody!” a loud voice from a senior reminded us, the parade crew who were busy talking joyfully to one another with happy faces. “The show is going to set off in 10 minutes,” he said excitedly.
I looked around to observe the atmosphere. Bunches of crowd were both right and left side looking directly at our long row. And I heard someone said, “Aksorn is gorgeous.”
Posing carefully in beautiful act of Thai dance, I was a little uncomfortable in this front line. Not just that, many decorations on my body made me heavier. The silky purple cloth wrapped around my chest and over my right shoulder, the dark blue sarong with traditional Thai painting, the shiny large golden-necklace around my neck, the metal belt wrapped around my waist so tightly that I barely took breath – these were the burden that I had to carry on until the show ended; but I knew it was beautiful, though.
Suddenly a signal came, “Go, go!” Then I started to go straight along with my friends to the large green yard. Stepping on the prepared spot, I realized that my heart beaten up faster and faster. I glanced at my friends a few seconds before the song echoed out of the speakers. We danced with smiles all that ten seconds long and then, faded out of the stage. I laughed, expressing the feeling like “Yeah, it is FIN.” What a short show.
After taking many photos as if I had never worn Thai costume before, I changed my clothes and said good-bye to everyone. The event was still kept on. I decided to walked around and inspect the fair before going back home. The sound calling customers were echoed along the way I walked past. The cold air flowed against my face. I heard people talked, laughed, or sang a song together. I guess I was the only one then who did not have someone to share the moment to.
In the distance, I saw huge crowd of people around the rim of the big pool. They were doing the same thing on Loy Kratong night – release the Kratong together with their families, friends, or lovers. It was such a romantic time.
I turned around and looked up to the mysteriously dark sky. There was not any star but the moon. The full moon shined so bright tonight. It was so bright that I wanted to make a wish.
I wished he had been here.
It was dark, not so dark really. The sky was a shade of smoking grey. The moon tried desperately not to be hidden, appearing as a golden spot surrounded by sea of somber cloud. I was there, being a ghost among the crowd. Next to me stood a lad, a comrade, fussing about how he hadn’t won any prize from booth games, yet he encountered his ex-soon-to-be-girlfriend walking with another punk. Wandering aimlessly for ages, we finally set to get out of this place, where people walked in couple or group of friends giggling to each other, where the air filled with nasty, stinking smell of stepped grass and wet soil. Before step through the gate, I looked back in the lake of candlelight. Sighing, how I wished next year would be a better night.
Loy Kratong festival at Chulalongkorn University is very popular to go with someone you like, but instead of going with the-person-I-want-to-date that I don’t have, I went with 4 friends who unfortunately shared the same fate. The atmosphere was not overfilled with liveliness as I expected, but the place still filled with people anyway. People were so crowded that I wondered how much people noticed faint luminescence of lunar corona in the cloudy night sky. As we didn’t have any real urgent homework (for now) and the weather was nice, we were not bothered by the crowd and mosquitoes so much. I wasn’t looking forward for this day very much, but somehow, with friends and food in our hands, everything didn’t seem so bad. All of us laughed as we pushed through river of people and incense smoke, reaching hands to each other so that we won’t be separated. It was the first time I shared a Kratong with 4 other friends. “Sharing” I meant was to share the money buying it (5 people, 1 Kratong,) and share floating it together. The picture of five university students in full uniform pushing a single Kratong into the water at the same time must have been funny. We stood by the pond and appreciated glittering illumination in front of us for a little moment. I tried to take a picture of the pool and the surroundings, but the scene I saw from my eyes was much more beautiful than that in the camera screen. However, as I thought, next year I would rather be with my family at our village’s lake like every year. No place like home!
Loy Kratong festival at Chulalongkorn University has always been famous for its delicious foods and the lively atmosphere, so this year I decided to join the festival there. It was late in the evening when the festival started. The sun sank down, the clouds faded in and the dark slowly blackened the sky. However, the green yard in front of the King Rama V alongside with the King Rama VI statue, in which I stood, was filled with the warm light from the light bulb of food stalls. And it was the sweet-scented smell of fried pork coming into my nose that stopped me from wandering around. It was not so hard for me to soon realize that the weather was so hot that I could not feel any breeze and I soon found myself standing with rivers of sweat and smelling fishy among a bunch of people crowding and pushing each other like sardines in a tin. So I escaped the crowd and tried to call one of my friends who was not there yet in order to float the Kratong together, yet there was no signal. I had to sit patiently waiting, doing nothing for half an hour until I decided to do it without her. Alongside the huge pond, the area was filled with chaotic scene; tons of garbages lying on the concrete floor, noisy sound made by the musicians and the Kratong seller and hundreds of Kratongs floated in the water which made the pond looked grubby. My eyes were hurt and my respiratory system was destroyed by the smoke of the joss stick. Once I could get out of there, I found myself struggling to take my overtired body back home. There were a lot of people standing in the dark trying to wave at a taxi with a red ‘occupied’ sign which always ended up rejecting the passenger. I decided to take the bus to the BTS station but then shortly got stuck in the traffic jam. It took much more time than usual for me to arrive at my cozy home. But even after all those messes, I secretly admitted to myself that I still want to go there again, but next time with a different purpose; to enjoy the food not to float the Kratong.
On that night, November 6, 2014; Loy Kratong Day, was the most special night ever for me that I had gone to The Loy Kratong Night Festival at Santipak Park with my entire family; The first time I and my family spent our Loy Kratong Night together!! When I stepped into The Loy Kratong Festival, my initial feeling that had occurred in my mind is What a Fantastic Night!!! That night was filled with the warmth of family, friends or even lovers holding their various beautiful Kratong which made from a cross-section of a banana tree trunk, that was elaborately decorated with folded banana leaves and flowers in intricate towering designs. The fragrance of Kratongs that spread over all the areas made me thought that I was in the flower field. Beside the footpath was surrounded with hundreds of Kratongs for sell around the main Loy Krathong festivity areas. There were many types of Kratongs that were laid orderly on the booth for sell such as the banana trunk core, styrofoam or bread that baked into the form of a traditional Kratong or a cute floating turtle. Among the beautiful bright full moon and the black sky decorated with the glittering light from the stars , the colorful neon light and the smiles on people’s faces, I and my entire family headed to the waterside where everybody gathering to float their Kratongs. We lightened the incense sticks and candle and then held the Kratong together after it was lit. We made a wish; the time I felt like I was in the paradise and the time all of we closed our eyes, held our hand and pray together. I felt in our family’s love, warmth and concern that my family had for each other.I realized that how lucky I was to have them always beside me. And then we sent the Kratong into the water with a little push, to carry our wish downstream. It carried away our troubles and offered up our wishes with the incense and glowing candle. Following the flickering light with my eyes as long as I can. I will never forget that night… the value night of me…
It was night that we couldn’t see the stars like every night but there was something distinguish . That night the big moon were shining so brightly It seemed like a big lamp shining light for Loy Kratong Festival and this reminded me that this time is November that mean final test and new year are coming soon . It was the first time I and my new friends went to Loy Kra tong together . 6.30 p.m. we get out from C Ma Dong dormitory to the fair . When I walked past cafeteria I saw people gathering and talking happily. They seemed like tomorrow they don’t have class . At Chula a crowd gathered at the entrance . Some people were waiting for friends ,some people were talking and some people were buying food like me and my friends. When I stared at inside the fair looking for food I couldn’t see nothing but a huge crowd .Before I entered the fair I had heard someone walking through me said “ Is there Temple Fair here ? ” and this make me laughed. When I entered inside I heard drum sound that came from near place my eyes looked around for finding where that sound from but I saw only people ,people and people around me. I wondered Is C Ma Dong Band showing now ? but It’s hard to go to that place so I and my friends decided to float Kratong . I and my friends bought small kratong made from white lotus then we walked step by step to pond . Around the pond sat a crowd trying to send their kratong to center of pond but it was impossible .Kratong seemed like want to say “I don’t want to go ” so the thing that I saw are Kratong and a crowd around the pond .After I floated my kratong I came back .
In Chulalongkorn University I saw many crowded that waiting for friend or maybe someone , the loudly noise from people around the areas , it is include many sound from calling, texting, musician even if count 1 2 3 before take photos. Mostly of them looking forward to go to the loy kratong festival night . Along the way it was plenty of food to choose when you are not eat anything yet.The weather wasn’t hot too much it also has wind blows through.Among these atmosphere there is an amazing show of various faculties that call for many screams from the cheering team and from plentiful people around this area.I’m waiting to Loy Kra Thong with my friends. But as time pass
my friend didn’t come to assembly point and I can’t catact them because the signals on the phone was incommunicable . Probably because there were too many people . So I decided to not attend. And back to Queen Sirikit National Convention Center instead.