Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Holidays Greetings & Felicitations to you & yours!

We're enjoying our second Christmas in Chiang Mai - here's what's been going on:

This is the little Christmas tree in the lobby of our hotel, cute, huh?

This pretty tree made of blue lights is in one of our favorite markets.

More signs of the season: garb for Mrs Clause ...& perhaps some elves?

and, poinsettias all over the place!

On Christmas eve, we had a big party at our hotel! We have wide balconies overlooking the pool/restaurant area & our group of 14 took over the 4th floor for the evening.

Here is Aase, Betty, Chairit, Beverly & Eva posing with the 'Orchid Tree' and gifts underneath.

Our table was beautifully set, everyone contributed delicious food & drink, and the weather was perfect!

One of our contributions was this fruit salad made of scrumptious tropical fruits: papaya, mango, tangerines, pineapple, dragonfruit (white w/ black speckles) and banana, drizzled with lime juice - YUM!

And we had presents! Everyone got at least one -

lots of fun & funny gems.

Here's the group (minus Chairit, who had a quick errand to do). From the top row: Kathleen from Colorado, Lena who is Thai, Adrien from London, and Sada. Middle: Kay from Chiang Mai, Eugene from South Africa, and Jim & Mido from BC Canada. Front: (standing) Eva from Germany - she now lives in Chiang Mai, Betty from everywhere in the US, Beverly from Michigan, Aase from Denmark and me!

The party broke up around 11:30, and after we cleaned up & got home (across the courtyard for us), the sky filled with fireworks - a wonderful way to end the night!

Christmas day, we relaxed (?!) ate great leftovers, sunned & swam, and then went out to a night 'walking street' market.

Here's a bit of the scene:

We loved these beautiful instruments and lantern decorations,

we watched this shopping frenzy over flowery quilted bags,

and had some excellent gelato!

On the way home we passed thru the Tha Pae Gate where the first of seven nights of 'countdown' to New Years had begun with loud music, dancing, games for kids and this high school choir singing Christmas carols in english! Interesting!

The gate area is all decorated for an International Celebration. There are many large steel sculptures covered in moving light strips representing the Sydney Opera House (below), the Coliseum (you can just see the edge, to the far right), the Leaning-ish Tower of Pisa, and the Eiffel Tower (2 of these).

Behind the Opera House you can see some of the food stalls.

But of all the Holiday decorations we've seen around town, I think this is our favorite.

Can you even begin to imagine what's going on here?

As the tree (enclosed in a plastic bubble) twirls, little foam 'snow' beads fall from the cup under the star and bounce merrily down the tree branches to the container at the bottom

... yup, it's 'snowing' in Thailand!

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

Celebration!

Earlier this month, Thailand celebrated the 83rd birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The King has reigned since June 1946, making him the world's longest serving current head of state and the longest reigning monarch in Thai history.

The Thai people love & revere the King, and Chiang Mai held a huge celebration that lasted for several days!

The birthday celebration events centered around this huge stage that was decorated with several tiers of gorgeous flowers - white mums, purple orchids and pink roses, with little white lights laced thru the flowers for a beautiful effect.

Each evening was filled with pomp & circumstance. Everyone turned out in their pink shirts, pink being the King's color choice of late. During this part, the candle lighting ceremony, everyone made their way to the stage area - with their pink candles - to watch the various presentations of devotion to the King.

We were standing by, watching as the candle lighting ceremony unfolded & suddenly, as one woman walked by me to join the inner crowd, she handed me her candle! Then someone else lit it & nudged me into the area, so in I went & stood among the Thais as they sang to their King!

It was a weird and wonderful moment!

Later we watched a beautiful re-enactment of the famous Three Kings story, about the founding of Chiang Mai - lots of dancing, gorgeous costumes & lovely music.

Afterwards, we visited the food stalls & found a new entrant to the 'Food-on-a-Stick' category: the Cake Ball!

First bite! We shared the cake-ball as we wandered down the street.

So, what is it? Three layers of cake batter around a center...

...what is that?

...a piece of ...Hotdog?? ...huh?

Well, the fun didn't end there. While we were trying to figure out what to do with this thing... we noticed a rat skittering along in the gutter. We figured he might as well have it, so I dropped it for him & in about 3 seconds, he had the entire thing pulled into some secret place & was having a happy meal & a celebration of his own!

Parades! Lanterns!

Loi Krathong and the Festival of Lights lasts several days, and for three nights running we were treated to wonderful parades! Here are some of my pics:

This pink float was stunning! Amazing detail:

12 or so people on it, all gorgeously costumed, some, like these ladies danced.

This giant krathong was wonderful!

The bubbles added a nice touch!

These pics were taken during all 3 parades, so they sort of run together in my mind! But, you can be sure that at all times firecrackers were exploding & that the sky was busy with fireworks and fire lanterns, like the dots in the sky above this lovely lady's head.

Another highly decorated float.

This float was so beautiful.

This 2 foot tall decoration was a corner detail of a float.

Oh yes, and just about each float had it's very own sound system, and yes - they were LOUD!

A good time to have your earplugs handy!

I snapped this elephant float thru a cloud of smoke from some

firecrackers - I like the eerie effect!

This float had a large entourage attached to it, some other were actually pulled, or carried - usually by young men clad in scanty traditional garb! (what - no picture?)

Another lovely huge float!

This chap with the tall pole had a very important job. Some of the wires crossing the street were too low for the taller floats, so it was his job to raise the wires so the floats could glide by. Some floats were built so that their tops could tip back or be lowered if needed!

We thought this peacock was fabulous!

On to the giant lanterns! This elephant lantern display was wonderful!

More animal lanterns.

Here are some fire lanterns being sent into the sky.

Sada posed in front of this guy - a symbol of Thailand. See behind him, the people posing against the brick wall? It was a very popular thing to do!

So I struck a pose in front of this jolly lantern!

Loi Krathong & the Festival of Lights

Loi Krathong begins with Yi Peng, the Lantern Festival. Beautiful lanterns like these, and many other types, can be seen all over town. This picture was taken at the Tha Pae Gate, a huge plaza near our hotel. It was truely a magical spot - every evening for a week, the gate was full of people strolling beneath the lights, children spinning and twirling & everyone taking pictures - or posing! And posing in the cutest manner possible!

Loi Krathong takes place during the full moon in November, and in Chiang Mai, it's a big deal. There were 3 amazing evening parades, impressive floats built on rafts in the river (like the one above in the early stages of preparation), a beauty contest, live entertainment, a big street fair, fire crackers & fireworks popping & exploding all day & night, and lovely fire lanterns floating up into the sky all evening long!

The main event is when everyone goes to the Ping River to float a little raft (a Krathong) made on a slice of banana tree - see the stack of little rounds on the bench behind the table? There are 3 girls behind this table making beautiful rafts to sell.

Noise, noise NOISE! Fire crackers going off night & day! Sada said these spent softball sized ceramic balls were beautiful flower fountains. We saw all kinds of fireworks for sale in the markets - in all sizes.

In a previous year, someone collected the leftovers & started a little wall - good idea!

The rafts are intricately decorated with natural (or edible) materials and always have sticks of incense and a candle, sometimes money is added.

Floating the Krathong is meant to honor the ancestors, send offerings and apologies to the river Gods, and to float away bad luck and sorrow.

You can see how intricate, different and beautiful they can be!

There were beautiful lanterns displays all over town.

This is just a small part of the spectacle at the 'Three Kings' monument.

And... there are the Three Kings - behind the cute girls posing for a picture.

More Krathongs - a very pretty design, with orchids.

These were awesome, made with - can you guess? Yup, ice cream cones!

I bought my krathong from a couple of young girls who only had a few left - it was a bit scruffy looking, but I didn't mind! We lit the candle & incense, made our way down the steps to the river's edge, and with Sada holding on to me, sent the little raft off into the river! Lots of other rafts were floating by and mine joined the procession. A lovely moment.

The weird & funny-ish thing is that down stream, there are often people/kids looting the krathons for any cash, like in the picture above. But... you send off your raft with blessings, wishes, beautiful flowers and money... and it is received by 'someone' on the other end, right? Does it really matter that that 'someone' is a kid up to his knees in the river checking out the little rafts! As Sada said - you give your offering to the Buddha, and the Buddha passes it along to the children.

No one seemed to mind - the fish can't use the cash, can they?

And, the beauty contest - they were all just lovely!