So it turns out that last night was the climax of the festival. It was a full moon, hundreds of lanterns in the sky again. They have to stop flights to Chiang Mai for 3 or 4 days cos the sky is just filled with lanterns. I popped to Goong's restaurant to say hi.
She was busy making floaty-lantern type things that you put candles in and float down the river.
-Take a slice of banana tree trunk.
-Fold banana leaves round it in pretty little patterns.
-Scatter flowers over the top until it looks lovely.
-Pop a couple of candles, sparklers and incense sticks in.
-You've got yourself a floaty-lantern type thing!
It turned out that she'd been making them most of the afternoon with a few people staying at the hostel attached to her restaurant. A canadian guy, a Swiss couple and a French guy. They were really nice and happy for me to join them. Goong's so lovely that she gave me a spare floaty-lantern which had clearly taken ages to make and we all walked down to the river. First we had to clip our nails and cut a bit of our hair (I pulled a bit of stubble out) to show that we were getting rid of the dirty old us and ready to start a fresh new us apparently.
There's LOADS of French people here so we all spoke in French (me very brokenly) on the way. I knew that degree would come in handy.
When we got to the river it was crazy mental with thousands and thousands of people all watching a never ending parade of girls made up to within an inch of their lives, kids doing crazy flips while crashing cymbals together, and fireworks going off every 5 seconds. We lit our floaty things, said a prayer and sent them off down the Ping river.
I'd love to say it was a spiritual experience and I felt renewed and relaxed, but it's difficult when you're thinking that any second a firework is going to take your face off and you never know when or where the next BANG is going to come from. I found it pretty stressful and after a bit of mystery street meat (tongue maybe? - even Goong wasn't sure) we all headed back to town and me Goong and Paul found a relaxed little bar to chill out in.
Annie and Lizi turned up with Annie's fully finished and beautiful tattoo. Nice end to the evening.
She was busy making floaty-lantern type things that you put candles in and float down the river.
-Take a slice of banana tree trunk.
-Fold banana leaves round it in pretty little patterns.
-Scatter flowers over the top until it looks lovely.
-Pop a couple of candles, sparklers and incense sticks in.
-You've got yourself a floaty-lantern type thing!
It turned out that she'd been making them most of the afternoon with a few people staying at the hostel attached to her restaurant. A canadian guy, a Swiss couple and a French guy. They were really nice and happy for me to join them. Goong's so lovely that she gave me a spare floaty-lantern which had clearly taken ages to make and we all walked down to the river. First we had to clip our nails and cut a bit of our hair (I pulled a bit of stubble out) to show that we were getting rid of the dirty old us and ready to start a fresh new us apparently.
There's LOADS of French people here so we all spoke in French (me very brokenly) on the way. I knew that degree would come in handy.
When we got to the river it was crazy mental with thousands and thousands of people all watching a never ending parade of girls made up to within an inch of their lives, kids doing crazy flips while crashing cymbals together, and fireworks going off every 5 seconds. We lit our floaty things, said a prayer and sent them off down the Ping river.
I'd love to say it was a spiritual experience and I felt renewed and relaxed, but it's difficult when you're thinking that any second a firework is going to take your face off and you never know when or where the next BANG is going to come from. I found it pretty stressful and after a bit of mystery street meat (tongue maybe? - even Goong wasn't sure) we all headed back to town and me Goong and Paul found a relaxed little bar to chill out in.
Annie and Lizi turned up with Annie's fully finished and beautiful tattoo. Nice end to the evening.
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