yesterday we wandered over to tha pae gate (eastern side of the old city) and down the road to the ping river, to the heart of the lantern festival. we followed a parade to the bridge, there were lots of cool floats and colorful costumes… unfortunately i didn’t get many good pictures since it was dark. but i did get a couple of pictures of the floats. on the way, we bought and released a couple of big lanterns into the air. people were setting off fireworks constantly, everywhere… which was pretty cool looking but rather loud.

lanterns at tha pae gate:

parade float… this one flapped it’s wings:

another float:

people everywhere were selling lanterns of various sizes and colors (mostly white though) that you could buy and float into the air. they’re made out of very thin paper with a thin bamboo circle at the bottom that holds a round lump of stuff that burns. some lanterns had a tail that released sparks, which was really pretty. we didn’t see anything that caught fire from the lanterns, though i did see one that was caught in a tree. here’s shaun waiting for a lantern to fill up with hot air so it’ll float into the sky:

the view from the bridge was fantastic! fireworks and lanterns everywhere you turned:

there were a fair amount of river boats floating up and down the river, which seemed a little treacherous on account of all the fireworks people were shooting off of the bridge into the water:

there were also these cool floats on the river:

we went down to the river’s edge to set off some fireworks and let loose a little candle/bamboo/leaf boat into the water, like a bunch of other people were doing.

we crossed back over to the other side of the river via a ridiculously crowded walking bridge:

one of the many fountains that were being set off everywhere:

here’s a little ferris wheel with tiny little cages for people to get in… we didn’t ride on it:

that’s it for now, i’ll post a video later

Filed under: chiang mai, festival, thailand by Administrator