naga fireball festival 2013

[stevehaigh]

does anyone know the real info on the naga fireball festival this year?

what are the main days. where is the best place to go. do you need to go on a boat trip or is there a plcae you can drive to?

thx

[hanno]

I checked on the Tourism Thailand website recently and was pleased to see they had detailed information. Until I noticed it was from 2012!!!!

[stevehaigh]

i think the festival part starts around the 10th or October but the main night is the 19th

[rct99q]

Check out www.mutmee.com for plenty of info. The main festival (fireballs) is indeed onnthe night of the 19th (october). The town of Phon Phisai is the main viewing point and festival. The road between Nong Khai and PP gets busy around 7am until well after midnight. Lots of fun if for nothing else other than watching Thai families having a good time. Have been the last three years and seen the magical fireballs one time (2 years ago) and have to add was pretty neat to see!

[DILLIGAD]

Check out www.mutmee.com for plenty of info. The main festival (fireballs) is indeed onnthe night of the 19th (october). The town of Phon Phisai is the main viewing point and festival. The road between Nong Khai and PP gets busy around 7am until well after midnight. Lots of fun if for nothing else other than watching Thai families having a good time. Have been the last three years and seen the magical fireballs one time (2 years ago) and have to add was pretty neat to see!

7am or pm until midnight???

[rct99q]

Traffic from NK starts at 7 in the morning (a lot of vendors setting up shop) asvwell as families who make whole day of it. Many people close up shop around noon and it is party time. If you have not been well worth a visit as it is a festive party atmosphere for several days!

[stevehaigh]

Check out www.mutmee.com for plenty of info. The main festival (fireballs) is indeed onnthe night of the 19th (october). The town of Phon Phisai is the main viewing point and festival. The road between Nong Khai and PP gets busy around 7am until well after midnight. Lots of fun if for nothing else other than watching Thai families having a good time. Have been the last three years and seen the magical fireballs one time (2 years ago) and have to add was pretty neat to see!

thanks, we're booked in there already. i didn't realize the fireballs were not every year.

how would you get to Phon Phisai? drive your own car or take a taxi or bus from Nong Kai?

Edited August 20, 2013 by stevehaigh

[Goinghomesoon]

Hubby is from Phon Phisai but if you don't know anyone in the area that can accommodate you the night before I would recommend taking the Mutmee's boat cruise. The traffic is really horrendous all day on the main 'fireball day' (as others have pointed out). You will be scratching to find any shade if you are there all day and you do need to get down to the riverside fairly early to stake out a spot or you won't get a place to sit. If you need a 'farang break" there is a pub near the bus station but not sure if it will be open at lunch. Have fun!

If you are interested for future years, there is a really pretty guesthouse/set of bungalows called Baan Waas run by a mother/daughter just as you drive into Phon Phisai - they have a deck right on the river, it's perfect because you can have food and drinks in your bungalow and set yourself up for a picnic without the stress of the traffic.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Goinghomesoon

[Guemlum]

Been going to Phon Phisai for the past 9 years and never saw 1 fireball...early hours of New Year's Day, this year, saw 3 of them in Nongkhai. They seem to rear their heads along random points of the Mekong. Must admit its good fun in Phon Phisai whether you see them or not.

[prakhonchai nick]

Check out www.mutmee.com for plenty of info. The main festival (fireballs) is indeed onnthe night of the 19th (october). The town of Phon Phisai is the main viewing point and festival. The road between Nong Khai and PP gets busy around 7am until well after midnight. Lots of fun if for nothing else other than watching Thai families having a good time. Have been the last three years and seen the magical fireballs one time (2 years ago) and have to add was pretty neat to see!

I too was at PP 2 years ago. Enjoyable family time - but alas I did not see the fireballs. Perhaps it was the Irish whiskey I was drinking - need to drink the local crap!

[jacnl2000]

7am or pm until midnight???

Given that choice, brilliant physicists may prefer 7am, but on this special day I will be following my wife and children, so do not expect to arrive and settle down somewhere at the Mekong river before 12am ( noon ).

http://wikitravel.org/en/Phon_Phisai

[Michael Hare]

I have only ever been once in 1996. Huge traffic jam almost all the way from Nong Khai to Phon Pisai. Took us 4 hours to drive that distance.

The nga fireballs were spectaular. They started shooting up out of the river every 10 minutes or so from about 7 pm onwards. As the firewalls rose up through the water they were a reddish colour, but upon breaking the water surface and rising into the sky they were a lightish blue-silver colour.

I have feeling they will be great this year. Climatic conditions seem to play an important role here. It seems that a fairly warm period in the beginning of October with rain, followed by a cool dry period (now on until October19-20) will trigger the ngas to start firing up or is it just the natural methane gas exploding? Who knows?

[jacnl2000]

Update ... posted at Thaivisa on Sunday the 20th of October 2013 09:45 ( CIT ) ...

First, a small youtube video containing background information about Naga Fireball Festival:

Yesterday, on Saturday the 19th of October 2013, visited the Mekong River, in the late afternoon ( later than planned due to the expected traffic jam ), close to Rattanawapi, close nearby Wat That Chaisi and Wat Rat Pho Ngoen, for watching the locally rather famous Naga Fireballs. And, yes, we were lucky to have seen quite a few Naga Fireballs, sometimes in short sequences, in the early evening of Saturday, red colored lights, relative fast shooting into the sky, starting at or just or somewhat deeper below the watersurface ( who knows ? ).

Reminded me of a much more modern computer game, called "Feeding Frenzy 2" ... lol ... Asked myself following question: where exactly do ideas come from ? What exactly is the origin of an idea and / or common ideas ? Take a quick look at this relative small computer game ( following youtube video ) and learn to speculate about what's possibly going on underneath a watersurface: