Naga Fire Balls
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Fire Balls  - on a night at the end of October, which has significance on the Buddhist calendar, people from around Thailand come to watch the river at night at Phon Phisai and other locations near Nong Khai to see the unexplained phenomenon of fire balls shooting into the air from beneath the river's surface. The king of the Nagas is held to be responsible for the display. The Nagas are the mythical creatures of the Mekong. 

During the day boat races are held at all the river towns.

Boat Races - In September and October the locals and visitors compete on the Mekong in boat races. The craft are powered by a large number of energetic rowers.

Nong Khai is on the Mekong, 615 km from Bangkok, in North Eastern Thailand. It is on the Thai - Laos border, 24 km from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where the  Friendship Bridge crosses the Mekong. 

Naga protecting Buddha statue (Photo) 

Naga protecting Buddha statue - side view (Photo)

Some questions and answers about the Mekong fire balls

I would like to know more about the so-called "Naga rockets" of Nong Khai (on display last 13th October). I'm interested in contacting anyone that could provide a reliable and detailed first-hand account of the phenomenon. Also, do you buy any books on this subject?

Hello Manuel
If you read Nong Khai News you will see that Parmual took us to see the Naga fire balls at two locations on the river.

Yes, I read the entries in Nong Khai News. I was just searching for a more detailed description, if possible (how many "rockets" can be seen, for how long, how do they move, which size, colour and brightness, whether they can be caught on film,...).

In any case, I should be very grateful if you could make clear for sure whether it's a natural phenomenon or a sort of festival (home made rockets fired from the river bank?).

Hello Manuel
Thai people are very superstitious. My brother in law is a police colonel and he, as does the rest of the relatives, firmly believes in ghosts. The local school teachers we know are adamant that the phenomenon of rockets coming out of the Mekong is a natural phenomenon related to Naga, the river spirit. The actual rockets are like the projectiles emitted from the tubes you can buy here which spout a dozen or more of them, but these are bigger, go further and have a longer time between projectiles. While I am sure that there is a group of locals organising the event, or actually many groups as this goes for miles and miles, the marketing is to be admired. Thousands of Thais turn up to see it. The local hotels and everything else were completely booked up for months beforehand. The number of rockets varies with the location, with the most being something like 300. I hope this answers your questions. If not, remind me what I have missed. 

Thank you for your very enlightening message. All that makes sense when considering the skills of locals in rocketry, the coincidence of the event with a special day of the lunar Thai calendar, the fact that it would be a "natural" phenomenon unheard of, etc. 

Finally, these are my last questions, hoping to get a better picture of it all.

---------------> Some time ago, I found the following description in the
revue "Kinnaree" (vol. 15, no. 9, September 1998):

"The natural wonder consists of flames bursting up from the underwater of the Mekong and moving skyward before disappearing into the night. The flames have no smoke, or smell, or sound. They range in size from that of a thumb to that of an egg. They are pink, red-pink and green." 

Does it match what you saw? 

----------------> Where come the rockets from? From the middle of the river (from boats?) or from the banks? If from boats, isn't it too apparent for the viewers that they are rockets fired by people aboard?

-----------------> Also read in "Kinnaree": 

"Northeastern residents who come to watch the so-called Naga Rockets seem to believe that the fire really belongs to the Naga". 

[This is just what you told me] "Some well-educated people from other regions of the country try to prove that the phenomenon has a scientific explanation. They explain that such a rocket is simply a biogas created by an accumulation of various organic items along the Mekong River."

I don't quite understand all that. If it's so obvious that they are rocket-like lights, how can it be that so many people don't even think that they are rockets indeed. On the other hand, I find strange that local educated people (the school teachers that you mentioned, for example) weren't in the know, since these seem to be activities not easily concealable... (Perhaps everybody knows but says otherwise?).

Hello Manuel
If you've used fireworks you are familiar with the tube that spouts a number of globules of firework after it is lit. About a dozen. These are like that except that they are larger - orange sized, and the ones we saw were all red. They appear to come from the water and go up possibly a hundred feet but that may be completely inaccurate as I wasn't thinking about it when we saw it. 
At both places we saw it a boat went out into the misty river and couldn't be seen after it left the bank, but it wasn't where the rockets appeared from. It could have been replenishing supplies as this goes on for hours.
The boats aroused no comment from the spectators. The Thai people accept ghosts, and this is just another manifestation of the same sort of thing.