Phuket Vegetarian Festival
A colourful event held over a nine day period in early October, this celebrates the Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind.
We arrived on opening night of the festival on our way to Bankok. The streets were lined with food booths 2kms long. A dream come true for me and I was going to eat my way through. And, I did. I wanted to try everything. Not such a good idea. Just because it was vegetarian, I should have known better and stuck to the rules. You know, nothing raw, only fruits that come with peels (like bananas, or organges), no ice, be wary of dishes and nothing steamed in bamboo or leafs. Those are the rules.
With that said, off we ran. The both sides of the streets were lined with wall to wall vendor booths selling everything veg! Yummy.
By pure chance we stumbled into the temple to watch what we can only believe was the opening ceremony. Luckily I was already wearing my long shorts covering my knees and had a white long sleved t-shirt I could throw on. 
It was crazy. People everywhere, some in trances but none with knives through there face, at least not yet. Once they raised the golden tree, we were back on the street for more treats. We boarded the luxury bus at 7pm bound for Bangkok. Now, back to those rules. Well, what can we say, we broke em. Not thinking, drunk on veggies or in that "trance" or something, we ate some stir fry (delicious as it was but not worth it) in a banana leaf.
By 9pm we were sick. By morning I was praying for the bus to be there. It was terrible. Food poisioning twice in 3 days, not fun.
Meow
Festival pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katnbrian/sets/72157625260037808/
