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[Governor]

Well I went this year, on 14th, and whatever the explanation it was a most enjoyable experience.

Arrived mid afternoon and parked up, sat by the river with the gf and her parents and pretty soon is was pretty packed with locals and one or two farrangs, soaking up the atmosphere, plently of food and activities, but certainly not a tourist trap.

After it was dark local lads were letting off their fireworks, later on the fireballs started flying out of the river, accompanied by the oohs and ahhs from the locals. I missed the first one, because I didn't know what I was looking for, but I saw the rest.

I saw about 15 though the tv news said there were about 300. Difficult to judge the size as they just appeared infrequently from different parts of the river, looked to be the size of tennis balls and rather like meteorites flying upwards.

Tens of thousands of people there, but all credit to the BIB for ensuring the flow of traffic.

Was it natural or man made, difficult to say, but the timing and change of location lead me to think it was natural.

Will certainly go again, but not every year.

[Flatouthruthefog]

phibunmike, on 2008-10-14 16:24:42, said:

mumbojumbo, on 2008-10-13 18:41:35, said:

I went to this BS festival about 5 yr ago, the primo spot to view was about 30k e of Nong Khai. A long tail boat with no lights came down the river dropping some depth charge fireworks, and shortly, naga balls appeared, didnt see myself, checking out the birds. Black cloud rolled in and dumped, took 4 hrs to get out of there, worst trip ever.

I saw them last year, near Kong Chiam. No boats anywhere near for several hours. The Mekong at this time of year is very fast, so definitely no divers either. I have no explanation, but the balls exist and are not man-made. See the other thread on the same subject.

See other thread? With all due respect I've been waiting here in Thailand for a decade and a half to see ANY credible photo, video or film (moving or still) of these blxxdx balls!
Another poster said rather importantly that they "were shown on a TV programme I was involved with."
Great! I trust you all! But surely it is not beyond the wit of man or modern technology to come up with SOME evidence of all this??
If I'm going to put petrol in the old jalopy and brave the millions on the Nong Khai riverbanks (TAT figures) I need to SEE evidence comprising at least 1% of all that has been described here.
At present I am intrigued yet unconvinced. Also slightly worried that if one of you believers does lure me there, you will, on my arrival, try to sell me the Friendship Bridge........

[sriracha john]

seeing is believing, as they say...

[raro]

Mrs. raro comes from that area East of Nong Khai. She and her family swear that they exist and are a natural phenomenon. Again, I couldn't make it this year to go up there and have a look myself but it is one of the things-to-do-before-I-die list so stay tuned and check this thread again next year. Or the year after....

[SymS]

I found a video in youtube looking for บั้งไฟพญานาค.


I have to say I'm a bit disappointed, I was expecting something more spectacular...

[Stephen Cleary]

Tony Clifton, on 2008-04-13 07:58:42, said:

Even Youtube doesn't have much to offer about this, I wonder why...

There are plenty of videos on YouTube. They are just not that clear.

Here's an example of one posted a few days ago.

Naga Fireballs: Nong Khai 14 October 2008

This isn't the first time i've read from members here that there are no vidoes on YouTube or the Internet etc... about something in particular. I'd advise members to do a search in Thai language next time and not just English.

***On posting this, i saw that Sym had also posted above. His video runs for 20 odd seconds. my link is a video of more than 2 minutes. These are only examples.

Edited by Stephen Cleary, 2008-10-19 13:12:30.

[sriracha john]

Thanks to both of you guys, those are nice videos but from wherever they were shot from, they both seemed significantly further away from the fireballs then from when I saw them... but still, they capture the essence quite well.

Thanks also for the Youtube advisory, Stephen... I'm very skeptical also whenever someone says, NOTHING exists... about any topic or subject.

Edited by sriracha john, 2008-10-19 13:38:02.

[Stephen Cleary]

So that foriengers won't become mistaken again that there are are no Nong Khai/Fire Balls on YouTube, one of the videos has been reposted again but this time with an English language title and tags.

Naga Fireballs Nong Khai Video (English title)

Edited by Stephen Cleary, 2008-10-19 14:17:22.

[Thaddeus]

Stephen Cleary, on 2008-10-19 14:13:11, said:

So that foriengers won't become mistaken again that there are are no Nong Khai/Fire Balls on YouTube, one of the videos has been reposted again but this time with an English language title and tags.

Naga Fireballs Nong Khai Video (English title)

Forgive me, but aren't balls of fire meant to be ball shaped rather than stick shaped.

[Governor]

I went there to see for myself and not to take photographs, though I did try.

As I indicated earlier, the "fireballs" seemed to come out the river, from different locations and intermittently, they were so fast it was difficult, no it was impossible, to photograph them, well it was for me anyway.  also left my video camera running, but again in the wrong place, so I put my cameras in the car and enjoyed the rest of the party.

It may be a tourist trap, but it was free and all the food outlets were at local prices so I do not really think that TAT is trying to encourage foreign tourists.