While Pattaya this year passed on producing its usual Halloween festival, residents and tourists still made the most of All Hallows Eve, wandering the streets in costume, helping children satisfy their sweet tooth and using Oct. 31 as yet another reason to party.
The most haunted areas of the city, as expected, were the foreign-centric enclaves of Walking Street and Soi Buakaow, where adults dressed as vampires and pirates held the hand of little ghost children. Restaurants and bars welcomed trick-or-treaters with carved pumpkins and spooky lighting, as well as candy for the kids and a cold beverage for the adults.
They arrived swiftly on their brooms, posed for a photo, then disappeared just as swiftly.
Halloween brought out the zombie in Wuthisak Phanumran who said he was warming to the Western tradition of dressing up for Oct. 31. He still might try to learn the real intent of the holiday; however, as he said, his friends convinced him to join in with the argument that it was the only night he could go out and get drunk in public without anyone caring.
But in a Buddhist Southeast Asian city that has adopted both a Christian Christmas and Irish St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween seems like a natural fit.
Jack Sparrow – that’s Captain Jack Sparrow! – meets Dracula.
Ooooo, scary, scary…
Psych ward escapees blend right in on Halloween night.
One of the little Smurfs seem roaming Walking Street.
Zombie Wuthisak Phanumran is surrounded by transformers and foreign flesh eating zombies.
Why didn’t you save us, mother?
Adults dressed in their best costumes hold the hands of little ghost children.
Sales of Halloween masks are brisk on All Hallows Eve.
Be careful of the brew these witches are promoting.
Domo arigoto.
Is that Michael Jackson?
My Dar-Ling.
Beauty and the beast.
Angels surround a warlock.
Ghouls, ghosts & goblins are out in force on Halloween night, even in Pattaya.
