Now is the Naga fireball (Bangfai Payanak) season along the Mekong at Nong Khai, just North of Gecko Villa.

At night, spectators from around Thailand and visitors from overseas huddle along the banks of the Mekong, awaiting this annual spectacle when glowing pink orbs emanate from the muddy waters of the river, hover briefly like great ghostly fireflies, and then rise slowly into the starry night sky.

These mysterious, magical fireballs have been observed for centuries, and are believed to be the breath of the mythical serpent or Naga that is supposed to haunt the river.

That superstitions abound in Thailand is well known, and the belief in the Naga does not seem far-fetched when one has actually witnessed the landing  of an eight metre long Giant Catfish (Pla Buek"), a rare but renowned denizen of the Mekong's swirling depths.

More modern theories to explain the fireballs - a need so common in these scientific times that outlaw and abhor fantasy and faith - include the belief that as the full moon at Buddhist Lent coincides with the moment at which the earth is in greatest proximity  to the sun, the latter's gravity, combined with a higher degree of UV radiation, increases the concentration and volatility of oxygen at ground level, thus causing  methane gas to escape from the riverbed and spontaneously ignite in these particular conditions. This rationalization of the process would thus reduce the Naga fireballs to a natural phenomenon also responsible for the formation of swamp gas and will-o’-the-wisp.