Tuesday, February 24, 2009

OTOP

OTOP was the ceremony of markets and clothing shops from all over Thailand joining together to form a GIANT market at Ubon Ratchathani's University!  How lucky we were to go through the university's gym and see all of the traditions of Thailand.  It's amazing how even in Thailand there are different cultures and traditions.  The food is different down south, it's got more of a Muslim culture, and the way they make the coffee is pretty cool.  They spin around while pouring the coffee between two containers without spilling it! Leah and I were in shock and watched for a pretty long time.  

Northern Thailand was represented by its clothing styles.  They have more of an Indian style with dark cloth and pink lace with silver bells (Which is the same as the girls in the pictures I took when I was in Chiang Mai, which is in northern Thailand).  There were also pearls, real pearls, which I believe came from southern Thailand, because it is made up of many islands!

There were some Thai normals we noticed.  Such as the fried bugs and amazing fruit smoothies.  It was pretty funny that the ladies selling the fried roaches and bugs were keeping flies off them... ha.  Many people from Ubon, and other provinces outside of Ubon, so I heard, came to enjoy the events of this market.  

It was just a fun time to walk around and see all of Thailand customs come together for one market.  It doesn't happen often, and I feel lucky to have seen such an event as this.

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

Oh wow?! sounds so fun! would have traveled the 15 hrs for that ;)