The Naga Fireball Festival

On the 26th of october, at the end of the buddhist lent and on the full moon, the Naga Fireball Festival takes place in Pon Pisai, about 45km from Nongkhai. The guesthouse organised a trip going there by bus and returning on a late night river cruise with dinner on board. So a big group of us decided to go there and hoped to see some of these mystical fireballs. Three years ago I also went to Pon Pisai, but that night we didn't see any fireballs, apparently they saw some the next day, when I had to do a visarun.
I was quite excited to go back. There were thousands of people, mostly Thai, sitting on the banks of the Mekhong, having a picknick, enjoying some (rather disappointing) fireworks and simply having a good time. People were lighting rice paper lanterns and watching the show on the river with thousands of candles floating down the river and many with fire decorated boats going by. But the fireballs once again didn't show. The Thai people didn't seem to mind though, they were just there to have good time and thats exactly what they got. Around 9PM we boarded the boat and began our long journey upstream to Nongkhai. We had a nice dinner on board, but I think we were all happy to get off the boat when we arrived back in Nongkhai at 3.30 AM...