Monday, January 6, 2014

Happy New Year

New Year's celebration in Chiang Mai was a blast! The city had a stage with live music, streets were closed around the historic town, and there were lanterns and fireworks everywhere.

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There were a lot of people out and about celebrating the New Year and enjoying the entertainment.

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 New years squid? Unfortunately not all the vendor delicacies here are vegan. 

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What really brought us to Chiang Mai was the promise of lanterns and they did not disappoint with a spectacular night sky full of them.

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Locals light them and make a wish when they release them. So when in Rome...

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We all got our lantern and made a wish or two.

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There might have been some trial and error in getting them aloft, but most of our wishes will come true.

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Wendy must have made a big wish.

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And so did the locals.

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Here is one of our lanterns airborne! Farewell and may our wishes come true.

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By midnight there must have been hundreds if not thousands of lanterns airborne and there were fireworks as well.

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On our way back we saw the devoted Buddhist at a New Year's service. It is important to them to get a New Year's blessing.

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And last, here is a picture of a hotel in Chiang Mai. Lovely place.

Not pictured in this post are the lanterns that failed to go airborne, landing on the water at best and on other people at worst. There is no lantern safety training so there are literally hundreds of torches just flying around. Many get stuck on trees or are not ready to be released and land on houses and cars. Some even have fireworks that go off afterwards. The whole mayhem is a testament to the fire-proofness of the city of Chiang Mai.

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