It had been my intention to get dinner at Brown Rice, a vegetarian restaurant run by another chef, but when I encountered Chiang Mai's night market, I went with the flow and browsed the stalls. I could have street food for dinner and go to Brown Rice on Monday night.
Thai Fish Cake was one thing I had not sampled yet. I found a vendor selling them and had a 50B bag which was quite filling. One thing I never understood though, where do the Thai in Chiang Mai dispose of the plastic bags? Street garbage bins were rare. Perhaps it was a deliberate tactic by the city to limit bag usage. I finally found bins near outdoor tables in grounds of wats that had rented out space to food stalls.
This one attracted quite a few devotees paying their respects to the Buddha, including some western ones.
Closing in on the Tha Phae gate. It had taken me over an hour to perambulate the length of the street market.
One thing I wanted to try was mango slices with sweet soy sauce. I passed it over at the market and never got a chance again.
Opposite Black Canyon Coffee, people were taking their photos with the wall.
A cultural performance at the stage set up the night before.
Nearby the decorated stands contributed by Thailand's ASEAN neighbours.
The parade vehicles were waiting at the gate for the start signal.
On Tha Phae Road, cordoned off to vehicular traffic for the parade, the crowds thinned out a bit, allowing a breeze to blow down the street and alleviating my claustrophobia. It got crowed again near the bridge.
On the bridge people were launching Yi Peng lanterns. But I was looking for the Loi Krathong floats.
They were down by the river bank. The floats are much less spectacular than the lanterns because the candles are not as bright and are visible to fewer people. People sometimes put a bit of hair or nail clippings on the float and symbolically let go of their negative thoughts with the float.
The night sky was full of drifting orange objects like so many stars.
The parade that had been expected finally came down Tha Phae Road and turned north. I was trapped and couldn't return the way I came but realised that if I just waited the parade would pass. A metaphysical lesson?
I called it a night. I was quite sick of crowds after two days in a row and looking forward to a quieter excursion the next day.
I didn't change or shower upon return to the hostel. Which was just as well given what followed. At about 1800, the owner popped his head into the dorm and asked how come I wasn't going with the rest of the group in a songthaew to the Yi Peng site. I hadn't heard about the excursion. I had only asked the owner the day before how to get there. It seemed that he had taken the initiative and organised (hired) transport for the hostellers. So I popped on my sneakers and grabbed my daypack and we were off.
Tardiness is sometimes rewarded. I got to sit in the air-conditioned cabin with the driver, who spoke good English, while the others had the benches in the back. We took a back road to enter the campus of Maejo University, an agricultural college. The driver had to call his friend on the mobile several times to find the exact way; he confessed that it was his first time taking that route. There was a lot of traffic with the same destination so it took about an hour to get there.
The site was a canal bank. It was absolutely chockers with people. As expected of any huge gathering like this in Thailand, hawkers were out in force. Besides the lantern sellers, there were stalls selling snacks and LED trinkets.
We had until 2100 to return to the songthaew. I didn't want to get lost so asked a couple of German boys if I could stick with them, figuring them to be more reliable than the other hostellers.
The bank of the canal was crowded, grassy, uneven and slippery in parts. There was the ever present hazard of slipping into the canal and indeed later I saw a woman slip in, and get hauled out by rescuers.
Most of my shots did not come out well. The main problem was the dim light leading to long exposures and camera shake. It was a situation where an expensive kickass camera and monster lens would have been handy. Still, I've been there and that's what counts.
One of the more successful shots.
Lighting the doughnut.
And it's ready to fly.
One of the show-off lanterns with a sparkler attached.
The Germans decided that they wanted to participate so they bought a pair of lanterns each from a vendor. There was a sports field or similar open area where there would be a mass launching of lanterns.
We jostled our way along with the rest of the crowd towards the field. Progress was agonisingly slow. As we approached, we could hear the announcer say over the PA: Please wait until the signal to release the lanterns together so that we can get a beautiful photo.
This was as close as we got when the release happened. I suspect it would have been impossible to get into the field anyway; we would have had to start many minutes or hours before.
Still, it was an unforgettable sight.
Somehow one of the Germans boys got separated. The other and I decided to return to the canal bank. Eventually we were reunited but from the expression on the lost one's face, it had been a bit traumatic.
So with the remaining 30 minutes or so, we had to launch the unused lanterns and find our way back to the car park. But we did it and the Germans got the photos and videos they wanted.
We got back to the songthaew on the dot. But others were late. It didn't matter anyway, the roads were clogged, so badly that the people walking back to cars they had parked hundreds of metres away could match the songthaew's speed.
Back in Chiang Mai, the group decided to get a late dinner at the Dada Kafe, despite some reservations. After a 20 minute walk, we discovered that it was closed. Disgruntlement all around. I couldn't help thinking: Abilene Paradox. (I've been doing a psychology course.)
So we went to another restaurant. They were about to close the kitchen but agreed to take our orders. After a while they came back and said sorry we've run out of something or other, would you like to change your order? This happened a couple of times, and finally they said, sorry we really don't have any food left. So we paid for the drinks and left.
The Germans and a British guy ended up buying microwaved snacks at a 7/11. I still had the bento bowl from earlier so I went back to the hostel to eat that.
It was such a relief to strip out of sweat drenched clothes, shower and get into bed. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the night for revellers. Loud firecracker bangs continued into the small hours of the morning. I remembered doing such things as a kid, but I dislike sudden loud noises now. It felt at odds with the very polite Thai culture. I suppose each culture has its own way of having a fling.
After the class I asked to be dropped off at Kad Suan Kaew, a shopping centre just outside the northwest corner of the old city. It was not as upmarket as those in say Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur, and was a bit forlorn in sections. Possibly due to relative income levels. The street traders just outside the complex seemed to be doing the best. The supermarket was well stocked though and even had a cafeteria. I didn't need dinner after grazing all day on my own cooking so I bought a tray of apple and guava quarters and ate half of them on the spot. A sundae at Swensens was cheap so I had one.
I walked back to the old city. It was hard to cross the roads due to traffic. Obviously foot traffic isn't encouraged and people go around in cars, motorbikes (very common), tuk tuks or songthaews.
The old city is square and surrounded by a canal, smelling of carp. There are only a handful of canal crossings between the outer and inner ring roads. I entered the old city and took a north south artery to the west of the hostel but walked too far south before turning east. But even mistakes have a silver lining and I walked past Wat Inthakin, gloriously lit up for the weekend festivals.
There are literally hundreds of wats in and around Chiang Mai. I didn't visit any of them though. Religious buildings and statues are not my thing, even if it's the Buddha.
I was next to the Three Kings Monument again and Yi Peng lanterns were being released. Here's one that's not plain white.
Across the street was a hall of lanterns and people were busily taking pictures in the multicoloured lights.
A whole spectrum of colours was presented.
Some that were not part of the hall.
A structure with a lantern show of photos, possibly of the king.
And that was the end of my nocturnal perambulations.
This trip to Chiang Mai was an impulse buy. For a few hours, fares on the Thai Airways site were about half the normal price. (It turned out later that due to an IT error or something, they didn't add a fuel surcharge.) I didn't want to go to Bangkok, too hot and humid for my taste but I had always been curious about Chiang Mai. Quick research showed that climatically it was the ideal time of year to go, and there would be two festivals that weekend, Loi Krathong and Yi Peng. Yi Peng sky lanterns (khom loi) featured in one of the photos in Lonely Planet's gallery of the most beautiful places on earth. So I bought.
I would have preferred a night flight but due to the timezones this wasn't possible. The return would be overnight though. So I amused myself watching a few films. I went for the foreign films partly because I could read the subtitles and ignore the soundtrack. Les Gamins (The Brats) had a ROTFL segment where Thomas ad libs as a translator for an aggressive Iranian negotiator giving a speech at disarmament talks. Ci Vediamo Domani (See You Tomorrow) was a bit too bleak. But I recalled from my Italian lessons that the literal translation is: we see each other tomorrow. An interesting cultural observation, and I didn't forget everything my Italian teacher taught me. The latest film in the Die Hard series was boring and full of CGI car demolition.
Suvarnabhumi Airport seemed to have settled in since my last time through, by coincidence at its inauguration. That trip we entered by the old Don Mueang Airport and left by Suvarnabhumi.
Chiang Mai airport is an international entry point. In practice this meant that I cleared immigration in Suvarnabhumi but my luggage was checked through to Chiang Mai to clear customs there.
The flight was late departing and the sun had set by the time we took off about 45 minutes late. Partly because Thailand is at UTC+7 so sunrise/sunset is around 6. I wished they had lowered the aircon temperature on both Thai Airways segments; it was too stuffy.
Coming in to land I noticed some floating lights in the sky. These were of course Yi Peng lanterns.
I had to cross to the domestic section of the airport to find the fixed fare taxi stand. Chiang Mai's airport is one of the most convenient in the world, only a few km out of the old city. As expected, this being south east Asia, streets were bustling. Chiang Mai is quite spread out, I saw a lot of ground lighting coming in to land.
After the friendly people at Aoi Garden Home checked me in, I took a walk to the eastern gate, Tha Phae, where most of the action is. On the way I passed a large lantern display.
At the Tha Phae gate there were brightly decorated stands from ASEAN neighbours for Yi Peng.
I also needed to change some money. I didn't find the money changer I had in mind and the others had closed by the time I gave up. Bugger, I would have to pay the balance for tomorrow's tour by credit card and get change later.
On the way back I encountered people releasing Yi Peng lanterns at the Three Kings Monument. The lantern is made of light porous paper. A circular hoop at the bottom has a wire frame to which an inflammable doughnut is attached. I'm guessing a wad of material impregnated with hydrocarbons. It takes a while for the flames to catch and generate enough hot fumes to lift the lantern.
I only had my snappy camera with me for the walk so the other photos weren't good. Don't worry there will be more Yi Peng photos later as the main event wasn't until the weekend.
It was only 2230 when I got back to my hostel but due to the 4 hour timezone difference, it was well past my bedtime back home so I showered and collapsed into bed. It was refreshingly cool during the night due to the elevation of Chiang Mai (about 300m).
