Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai, etc.

I've been in Chiang Mai almost a week and am realizing that somehow my time here in Thailand is already coming to a close (at least until spring, when I'm back for another month). I fly out of Bangkok in two weeks, and so rather than try rushing things by going north up to Laos and spend too much time on busses, I'm going to be making my way more or less back towards Bangkok. So in the next day or two I'll head west over to the little town of Pai, which is also fairly touristy but is supposed to be a pleasant little town in the hills, with good access to hiking, some hot springs, as well as seeing some of the more traditional hill tribe villages (many of whom are refugees from Myanmar and Laos). I was considering doing an organized trek for a few days, but it sounds like they kind of rush things, shuttling you from a short walk to a waterfall to a hill tribe village (which might not even be a real village, but one basically set up for tourists, which is a weird concept) and then a quick elephant ride and then some river rafting. I'm thinking I'd rather just hike and bike around and do my own thing, and that area sounds like a good place to do it. Then from there I'll start making a more southerly route.

So, back to Chiang Mai. The Loy Krathong festival was quite amazing. The festival is centered around the end of the rainy monsoon season, so it's a time to celebrate abundant crops as well as release negative energies; which they do by floating these flowery candle boats down the river, releasing lanterns into the air and also setting off tons of fireworks. And by releasing lanterns into the air, yes, I mean lanterns, which are aflame and untethered, and go floating up into the sky, to land who knows where. This is not a festival that would be allowed in southern California. It's neither environmentally friendly nor safe, though the intentions are certainly good. But the best image I can think of is something like armageddon, or a war zone, except that everyone's having a great time. Fireworks are shooting off with little discretion in every direction, as well as cherry bombs and other explosive firecrackers. The river is filled with the lights of candles floating down it, and the night sky is filled with thousands of these lanterns floating up and over the city (they're simply a large paper tube, maybe 3-4 feet high and 2 feet wide, turned upside down and with a bundle of waxed cardboard inside them, which is lit and then causes it to float). This goes on for hours and hours after it gets dark, and happens over several nights.

The only reason this doesn't result in the entire country burning down, at least as much as I can figure, is because it takes place at the end of the monsoon and so everything's damp. Also, in theory at least the lanterns don't actually come down until the fires inside have already burned down. But of course that's not foolproof and some of the floating lanterns inevitably fall into trees. But they don't end up starting a fire due to the wet conditions, but just burn themselves out. You would think some of them would start fires somewhere, especially during a drier year, but if so it's obviously not enough of a detterent to change the tradition at all. Either way, I'd hate to be downwind from a city where all of these things end up landing.

The large Ping River flowing through town is the place to be, so I headed down there with my own Krathong (the candle boat) and took a spot by the river to watch the action; which involved a lot of Thai teenagers having too much fun, since the drinking age is 18, you can drink on the streets and most of them had fireworks on hand. But overall they behaved themselves fairly well, no fights or puking in the street, at least that I saw. Eventually a couple of travelers ended up sitting near me and we chatted a bit while watching the spectacle, and drank a beer or two too many ourselves (which means only three in my case, but that will do it); which was fun until I got back to my hotel room with a bit of a spinning head, and a stomach that wasn't so excited about the sausages I'd bought from a street vendor on the way back. So sometimes you have to pay for your fun the next day, but it was still worth it. It was definitely a trip, and I'm left impressed at how the Thais can be such friendly, easygoing people, and yet put on a heck of a party at the same time. There was also a nighttime parade and assorted music and street fairs that showcased various aspects of Thai culture, both more traditional and modern.

So, other than that I've just been checking out the mellow city of Chiang Mai a bit, including a number of temples and a museum I biked to today that illustrated the various different hill tribe cultures of northern Thailand (including the "long neck" women, with the series of rings around their necks, who are the ones who unfortunately have become something of a tourist spectacle. They are refugees from Myanmar (Burma) who have fled to Thailand to escape persecution from the Burmese government). Also I've been enjoying the wide range of dinner options here, where they're catering to all the Western tourists. I found a great Mexican restaurant, where I ate for Thanksgiving. Last night I headed there again, but they're closed on Mondays so instead I stopped into another place and had an excellent chili burger with fries (although the chili was just literally chilis). I figure I've got to take advantage of the food from back home while I can, since most places I'm not going to have the options.