After the elephant training session, I was sent back to the city in another van with another group of people I had never met. The van had to stop at this one place because another driver would be driving us back to the hotel. However, that particular driver was busy emceeing a funeral ceremony so we had to wait, and all the passengers were even invited to see what was going on.
So these were some of the things I saw there: The dead could be someone well-known or important in the village, by looking at the number of people present that afternoon. People who came contributed money and in return they were given flowers which were then put on the table near the monks to pay respect to the deceased. People were also given straw hats with Thai words written on them. The small building could be the crematorium. The cremation ceremony was started with fireworks, before the body was set ablaze. And all these were just my predictions - there was no one to tell me what was happening actually.
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| the person holding the microphone was the driver |
I must have been lucky to get something which was not included in the original package. Not many people would have the chance to visit a funeral ceremony when they are on a holiday trip.
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