About four years ago (!!), I was attending the Loi Krathong festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In honor of that, as it remains one of my all-time favorite travel memories, I’m sharing a (edited) part of my journal from that weekend. I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past! And, be warned, I talk about American food A LOT. I was feeling very deprived in Southeast Asia, apparently!
“As we push away we pray
We will see a better day.”
(last two lines of the Loi Krathong song)
We got into the Loi Krathong spirit pretty quickly as the Loi Krathong song was playing over and over at the bus station en route to Chiang Mai. It’s a nice song, but imagine hearing ‘Jingle Bells’ over and over…you get the picture.
Our pilgrimage to Chiang Mai, reputedly the best city in Thailand to see the festival, went well, although the 4 hour bus ride seemed much longer as my bladder was threatening to explode. Then, after dropping our stuff off at the Green Tulip–by far, the cleanest and nicest hostel we’ve seen in Southeast Asia–we wandered off to see the town.
Chiang Mai is such a NICE city. I wasn’t expecting it! While Bangkok had nice areas, it mostly felt overwhelming to me. But, Chiang Mai was so charming. Rivers and moats, malls and markets, parks and wats. And so many bookstores!
Our first day in Chiang Mai, the highlight (for me) was some Western food in the form of Pizza Hut and HARRY POTTER 7! Part One. It was fun to go to a movie in Thailand–there is a little video/song at the beginning dedicated to the king, and everyone stands up in respect.
On Saturday, Loi Krathong truly began! The day included bagels, a seriously incredible Thai massage, and our own little Thanksgiving feast. The little Thanksgiving included a whole host of homey food, such as falafel, burritos, Subway, salsa, Coke, and salad. Not much traditional Thanksgiving food, but the sandwiches were turkey, and remains one of the best Thanksgivings on my record, anyway (despite the fact that we almost burned down the hostel with our “mood lighting” candles…at least we were on the roof and caught it quickly, eh?). The rooftop of Green Tulip was also the perfect place to get our first glimpse of the amazing lanterns lighting up the sky as part of the festival.
Loi Krathong, in my (limited) understanding, traditionally began as a festival honoring the river goddess. Basically, you make a little banana boat (the krathong) and fill it with flowers and candles and bits of yourself, i.e. fingernails and hair, to send away the bad spirits that may be plaguing you. Then you light the candle and send it down the river! The rest of the festival evolved in the places that don’t have a river: giant lanterns lit up and send into the sky with wishes for the next year.
After our lovely little Thanksgiving celebration, we headed out onto the town to see the festival and send up a lantern of our own! The festival, we soon discovered, is like 4th of July on crack, mixed with a street festival and Valentine’s Day (you’re supposed to send your boat down the river with your lover). The 4th of July part was the insane fireworks that were exploding everywhere, and as Thailand is a little lax on who can light the fireworks (although they were especially on guard when a foreigner had a firework in their hand, I noticed) and where they can be lit, it was slightly terrifying, with them shooting in all directions! There was a lot of ducking and dodging that night.
After traversing the crowd, getting caught in the middle of a parade, we made it down to the river, the center of festivities. After fighting our way through, and taking pictures of the many lanterns and the crowds and the fireworks, we bought our own lantern and headed onto a rickety dock to light it off.
It was harder than we thought-it took awhile to get it lit (of course, a friendly Thai person produced his extra lighter and gave us a hand) and after you light it, you have to hold it for awhile so it gets sufficient heat to prevent crashing and burning (we saw a lot of those, and some that got stuck in trees, or on houses…makes you wonder how many fires happen during that weekend!!). As we were new at this, we didn’t quite hold it long enough–it got too hot to hold, so it seemed like it would float easily to us!–and it careened through the crowd, causing a few men to grab their women and dive out of harms way. But it went up! Nobody got hit! And we watched it go waaaaay up into the sky, holding our wishes for a better day.
We spent the rest of the weekend exploring Chiang Mai (which has an amazing night weekend market) and enjoying the festival.
That Monday after was apparently the biggest day for Loi Krathong. We heard this about every day during the festival, but Monday certainly seemed the biggest. The streets were all closed off, the parade was somehow still continuing at around midnight when we finally headed home, and the crowds were a little suffocating.
The rest of our friends had left at this point, so it was just me and my lovely cousin, Courtney. We bought our own little boat for the river on Monday night and put a bit of hair in it, and braved the fiery shores (Court literally got her hair caught on fire from a firework–scariest moment of my life possibly–and we both narrowly avoided several close calls to our faces and other precious parts) to send it down the river! Our candle didn’t really stay lit all that long…but I still like to pretend that the river goddess is blessing us anyway.
That evening, we watched the plethora of lanterns from our peaceful (well, peaceful except for the occasional dynamite blasts) rooftop and imagined all of the wishes, thought of our own wishes, and sat there in awe. From a distance, the lanterns looked like fireflies, or the enchanted ceiling in Hogwarts, or aliens taking over the planet. But no, just millions of wishes being sent up into the sky.
