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Chao Ley (Sea Gypsies) Boat Floating Festival

The east coast of Koh Lanta Yai is flat and has many local villages scattered along its coastline. Koh Lanta has a very diverse cultural mix of people who have lived on the island in harmony for hundreds of years: Thai-Muslim, Thai-Chinese and the original sea gypsies still inhabit the place in harmony. The biggest town on Koh Lanta island, Lanta Old town, was once called Si Raya and was the commercial port for Chinese and Arabic trading boats that sailed between the ports of Phuket, Penang and Singapore…

Today it is a village with a few rows of 100 years-old stilted shop houses and shacks along the coast, where local fishermen dock their longtail boats giving the whole scene a very Thai look. On the east coast one can also visit an old clan of sea gypsies, or Chao Ley, in their own traditional village where they try to preserve a disappearing way of life.

Full moon day in November is when they celebrate the Loi Ruea Chao Ley, a rare festival involving the setting of ceremonial boats adrift in order to bring prosperity and happiness to the participants. Before they release the boats, there is singing and dancing with the performance of the famous Rong Ngeng celebrations.
In a few words, a Rong Ngeng consists of a musical group generally composed of elders who play local instruments, a few lady singers, and a group of young dancers sitting in chairs and waiting to get invited for a dance. For a symbolic 5 baht, a lady rises from her chair and dances in front of patrons with exotic and sensual movements at the sound of the orchestra. The drawling laments are sung in falsetto by the lady singers whose faces are excessively made up with talcum powder and bright red lipstick.

If you wish to attend this original event, you should be in Ban Sala Dan village, on the north of Koh Lanta Yai, on full moon day. Ban Sala Dan is Koh Lanta Yai’s commercial center, and the pier where visitors arrive on the island. The village is a row of shops, seafood restaurants on stilts, dive shops, tour operators, banks and guest houses that cater for new comers on Koh Lanta island and serves as a sort of commercial town.