Loy Krathong Festival is quiet in Bangkok amid flooding

BANGKOK, November 9 (TNA) - The Loy Krathong Festival in Bangkok this year appears to be quiet due to flooding, as sales of raw materials for Krathong rafts at the capital's main Pakkhlong Talad have plunged to only some 20 per cent. As of Wednesday, the eve of the traditional Loy Krathong Festival, sales of completely-made krathong rafts and materials for making the krathong rafts have remained disappointing at Pakkhlong Talad, the city's major flower market, as there have been low supplies of banana leaves used for making the Krathong rafts due to flooded banana plantations in Bangkok's suburban Nakhon Pathom Province and disrupted supplies from the lower northern Sukhothai Province; while retail prices of banana leaves have remained unchanged caused by flood-affected low demand. Workers of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) were, however, cleaning the riverside Santi Chaiprakarn Public Park in Phanakhon District to organize the Loy Krathong Festival on Thursday, from 3pm to 9pm, when krathong rafts will be, instead, floated on its flooded aerobic dance ground, as the Chao Phraya River has kept rising by 5-10 centimeters there. Somchai Chatsakulpen, deputy chief of the BMA's environment office, said that the City Authority would open public parks for the Loy Krathong Festival in the capital from 3pm to midnight, except the flooded Chatuchak, Vajira Benjatat or Suan Rodfai, Ramintra and Rommanee Thung Sikan Public Parks. (TNA)