The annual 2013 Vegetarian Festival in Thailand is taking place this year from October 5th through October 14th in Bangkok. It is roughly a 10 day period when Thai people eat vegetarian food as a way of making Buddhist merit by not eating animals for that period. The festival has Chinese origins and there is a big celebration in Bangkok’s Chinatown every year. It is perhaps the most visually cultural event of the year in Bangkok where there are some great photo opportunities to be had in and around the celebrations.

One specific place to experience the festival in full swing in the evenings is a narrow lane known as Charoen Krung Road Soi 20.

During the festival this street, which is normally a district for used car parts, converts into a cultural congregation point for the festival every evening at around dusk.

It is best to get there around 5:00PM and, as you wander into the lane, it starts to narrow and you are surrounded by all kinds of shops selling traditional Thai food meat dishes, but using mock meat made from gluten and soy products instead of real meat.

Such dishes as vegetarian made roast duck with rice, fried noodles with pork, and barbecued pork with rice can be enjoyed. The mock meat dishes offer some fun eating and great photo opportunities along the way as you go deeper into the lane. Also, the mock meat really looks and almost tastes like real meat!

As you go deeper into the street it curves around to the left and you see some colorful fruit stands and eventually some long, crowded, narrow stalls appear making fresh taffy and peanut brittle the old fashioned way with groups of bare-chested men pounding the taffy into long flat sections with their big, heavy wooden hammers before putting it into the oven to be roasted. Once it comes out of the oven it is sugared, cut into small pieces, and wrapped in paper for immediate sale. It’s really delicious when its still warm.

Once you pass this section then eventually the street widens out again and you reach an expansive open area towards the end of the lane where there is a Chinese temple with huge yellow candles in front and red life-sized incense sticks burning, a cluster of yellow paper lanterns hanging above, and prayer makers making merit everywhere. It is an interesting site and sight to photograph to say the least.

Then, finally, just beyond the temple, which is right along the river front itself, is a stage setup where there are nightly performances of Chinese Opera that are being enacted for the gods. The players are dressed up in beautifully colorful and ornate costumes and perform into the late evening.

The highlight of this photo taking experience is to wander backstage before the performances start and photograph the performers as they are putting on their makeup, costumes and getting ready to go on stage. The performances usually start around 6:00-7:00PM so it is best to get there around 5:00-6:00PM to be able to photograph the players backstage.

This is definitely the most cultural and colorful photo opportunity I have seen yet in Bangkok and it only happens for 10 days a year so make sure you go.

To get there you can take the MRT to Hua Lumpong station and then hop a taxi from there. It’s only a 10 minute taxi ride to the area from the train station. Enjoy!