New Years Chiang Mai

New Years in Chiang Mai was one of the most remarkable nights of my life. The lanterns that we saw lit in Bangkok for Loy Kratong are a huge part of the celebrations in Chiang Mai. They are called Khom Loy or “Floating Lanterns” and for several days before New Years they were available everywhere. Of course, on New Years Eve, there were several vendors selling them at Thapae Gate for us tourists who were unprepared, for 50 baht each as opposed to the 3 for 100 that we saw them at all week.

We stayed in the apartment until quite late. Mikae was watching Xmen (Trilogy was on Star Movies), and I was trying to get some progress made on the uploading of all of our videos and photos. We didn't leave for chiang Mai's core until almost 10pm. By that point, the lantern lighting was well underway, and as we rode into town hundreds of lanterns twinkled in the distance. They are said to resemble a ladder going to heaven, but with this many, it looked more like a flickering milky way. As we came in to town past the river, the park beside Riverside was full of Thais sending their lanterns and wishes into the air.

As the night falls, the spectators will be excited to see the long strings of
Khom loy rise gently into the limitless sky as they stimulate the participants'
spirits to rise higher to the heaven. This brings joy and happiness to the
merit-makers since their ill-fortune has been floated away.

We headed to ThaPae Gate, as this was the center of the action, and we really had no plans. We watched Thai families light their lanterns for a while, and then we purchased our own. It was already put together, we simply lit the coil, allowed the balloon to fill with hot air, and let go, watching it fly into the heavens. It was beautiful.

General Video of the Scene at ThaPae Gate



Lighting and Releasing our Latern into the Sky

We then wandered to the closest place with seating available, which happened to be a pizzeria and ordered a pizza and some drinks.. and sat back to watch. The beauty salon beside us had a group of Thais polishing off several bottles of SangSoem and being Very boisterous. It was fun to watch. The very old white dad and young Thai mom with two teens that were clearly theirs, spoke Quebec French beside us, and the owner of the pizzeria bumbled about getting champagne ready to share with his employees. We paid for our bill and left at 10 min to the countdown, hollering a quick “Sawadee Pi Mai KA!!” at the Beauty Salon Thais, that all thought this was hilarious and all went bananas. Took us only a matter of minutes to navigate through the crowded streets back to the gate, where all the cities tourists seem to have gathered. Several wore the pointy multi-coloured caps that were a couple baht at Tesco. More than several were very drunk.

We climbed the stairs to the top of ThaePae gate where maybe a hundred people had congregated. We then climbed onto one of the little “turrets” (for lack of a better term) and tried to watch the spectacle without falling off. At the stroke of midnight, three or so official looking fireworks displays began from different areas of the city, along with a number of unofficial ones. It was truly magnificent, the lanterns floated between the blasts, continuously, and people were setting off firecrackers from every direction. We quickly climbed down from the wall afterwards, as I didn't trust my balance, the crowd and the 1000 pipers I had downed just before.

Climbing up ThaePae Gate & the Fireworks

We wandered around a bit more, watching people shooting firecrackers at each other and over the moat, watched some lantern carcases floating by in the moat, and lanterns caught in trees – still burning. When you have zero regard for safety, and there is no municipal insurance, you can seriously party.

We then ran into a friend of Mikaes from highschool, named Guillome who was with his girlfriend Jennifer and his parents. Guillome and Jennifer had just moved to Chiang Mai to teach, and his parents were here visiting for Christmas. Mikae is all excited, because Guillome's mom was beside us purchasing scarves at the Sunday market, and he thought that he had recognized her. We exchanged phone numbers and decided to meet up for a drink within the next couple of days. After this, we motorbiked home in the freezing cold. (It got cold all of a sudden in Chiang Mai) I counted lantern carcasses the entire way, surprisingly, I only counted 16.

New Years Day, the Thais traditionally visit temples, and do such things as setting birds and fishes free, feeding fish and all of these wonderful acts of liberation. We thought it would be a nice idea to visit a Wat that we hadn't visited yet anyways, as most things were closed and it was a very nice day. First things first we went into town for a bite to eat. Chiang Mai was a ghost town. Most businesses were closed, and there was only a handful of wanders on the streets and no street vendors, tuk tuks anything. It was really bizarre, and a huge contrast to the night before. It was also very clean, for the party the night before, there was very little litter... other than the odd lantern carcass here and there. We found Jerusalem Felafel, and they were open for business. I had a lentil and spinach soup to start, which had Mikae looking enviously over his plate of french fries. Our felafel pita sandwiches were very large, on. Fresh whole wheat pitas, very full and with a substantial amount of both felafel and humus. Could have used some spice, and some purple radishes, but very tasty.

We selected “Wat U Mong” otherwise known as the “Forest Wat” and made our way over there on the motorbike. Vendors were selling fish food at the entrance, and the woman explained to me (using charades and the word “plaa” which I understood ... it means “fish”) that the fish do not eat the fish food, they like this and she handed me a bag of caramel popcorn. I bought one bag of caramel popcorn and one bag of fish food, and I was still very confused. We entered the Wat and looked around, it was beautiful.

Wat Umong is unique in many respects. For one, it's built in the foothills of
Suthep mountain and is still heavily forested. But the most unique feature of
the temple are the tunnels which give the wat its name (umong is the Thai word
for "tunnel").

The temple and its tunnels were built in the late 14th century. On a level open space, a large artificial mound was built and then criss-crossed with tunnels. The legend is that the temple was built like this for a highly regarded monk who was nonetheless a little crazy. The somewhat maze-like tunnels kept the mad monk from wandering off. The monastery was later abandoned and wasn't used again until the 1940's. The long disuse is probably what accounts for the overgrown atmosphere of the temple. That's why the temple is so great to visit right after the rains have gone. The brick walls of the mound are covered with moss and small plants. Other stone works are covered in moss and vines.

Atop one end of the mound is the temple's chedi, reachable by a short stairway to the left of the tunnel entrances. The main "bell" section of the pagoda is mostly covered in thick vines, giving a strong sense of decay even though the structure of the pagoda appears sound. When I was here in early October 2002, it appeared that the chedi had been opened and the relic inside removed. A curious little ad-hoc alter had been set up on the base of the pagoda right in front of the rough opening in the brick work. The alter consisted of many tiny Buddha images as well as other offerings, apparently left by many people. By August 2007, the pagoda had been restored and most of the vines removed.

A trail leads from the chedi across the roof of the mound and down the other side. Just beyond the far edge of the mound is a rather ghastly, very emaciated seated Buddha image. This style of Buddha image was in style for a short time hundreds of years ago, but today there are very few examples of it still in existence.

The path down winds through the monk's cells and other out-buildings, then back around to the front of the mound. Just as the path turns back towards the main tunnel entrance is a curious collection of Buddha heads and other relics from various temples. This odd collection started when one of the temple's supporters rescued some broken images from an abandoned temple in a nearby province and bought them here. Now, apparently, when people run across such relics or have a broken Buddha they want to replace, they bring them here.If you continue on the path on past the mound and the pagoda, you'll eventually come to a small lake with many fish, birds and other wildlife.

After visiting the collection of Buddha relics and the tunnels, we wandered towards the mediation center and decided to sit for a moment. This place really has an almost magical vibe. Its beautiful. We listened to the chanting of the monks, wandered around the massive chedi and curiously followed a a young Thai couple that had a plastic bag full of live fish. We followed them to the lake where they released the fish from the bag. Fish food in hand, I found a bench and looked over the murky water. The water was filthy, littered with scraps of bread, fish pellets, kernels of popcorn.. looks like there had been some serious feedings early in the day. We decided to give it a try regardless. Drop in fish pellets, no action. We think that it is possible that the fish are full. I reluctantly try a caramel popcorn piece and the fish go wild. The lady was right. I tie up the fish pellets and put them in the backpack, deciding to feed the moat fish with them at some point. We sit for at least a half an hour dropping caramel corn into the lake and watching whiskery fish fight for every piece.

I should probably mention Miguel's – a British run “Mexican” Place here in Chiang Mai. We had a very large burrito smothered in sauce and cheese, order of nachos, and a decent vegetarian soft taco for me with one beer and one margarita, for around $16. Not the best Mexican I have ever had, but it certainly hit the spot, AND the margarita actually tasted like tequila. A pleasant surprise.