NONG KHAI, Oct 18 – Tourists have started their annual pilgrimage to this northeastern Thai province to see the mysterious Naga Fireballs Festival in the nighttime at the End of Buddhist Lent Day tomorrow.
Traffic on Mitrapap Road from Udon Thani to Nong Khai has been steady since early Friday morning, as travellers wend their waysfrom around the country on their way to Nong Khai province for the Mekong lights festival.
Anuchit Sakulku, Nong Khai Tourism Business Association president, said some 90 per cent of hotel and guest house rooms have been booked. The local tourism economic return this year is expected to rise up to 40 per cent more than last year.
Overflow accommodation, shelters and amenities are also prepared in the municipality, he said. Local authorities have added tents and mobile toilets for travellers as well as workers and officers on 24-hour security duty.
The Naga Fireballs Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday.
Accommodations in the town are monitored by provincial officials to not be overpriced for the popular annual festival.
Naga fireballs are said to be a natural phenomenon in many sizes which rise mysteriously above the Mekong River, and are most often reported around the night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent.
