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.
There were a lot of people out and about celebrating the New Year and enjoying the entertainment.
New years squid? Unfortunately not all the vendor delicacies here are vegan.
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.
Locals light them and make a wish when they release them. So when in Rome...
We all got our lantern and made a wish or two.
There might have been some trial and error in getting them aloft, but most of our wishes will come true.
Wendy must have made a big wish.
And so did the locals.
Here is one of our lanterns airborne! Farewell and may our wishes come true.
By midnight there must have been hundreds if not thousands of lanterns airborne and there were fireworks as well.
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.
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.
Wendy and I visiting another Wat, or temple, at night. 
For Christmas, Omar bought me a day of elephant riding - here we are learning commands first. Hoi, hoi - means go!
It was quite the ordeal to climb on top of a bareback elephant! Those guys are huge! Note the elephant bending his leg so Omar can use it as a step!
Success!
Me doing some unintentional elephant acrobatics while getting up!
Boys and poop - some things never change.
The present was for me without a doubt, but this is also sort of like the time Homer bought Marge a bowling ball for Christmas.
5 weeks old and growing fast. This little guy loves butt scratches and head butting. 
Coconut is a main staple in Thai food. This machine shreds coconut meat which is then pressed once for coconut cream or twice with water for coconut milk.
Omar and I in another cooking class. He dodged the first class by feigning ill, but he couldn’t get out of it this time! Why!? - it even looks like he is having fun in the kitchen! 
Men in the kitchen - just what I like to see.
Thai chefs - well fed and with our mouths on fire.
Lanterns!!! -the whole reason we chose to spend New Year’s in Chiang Mai. Oh yeah… and I guess our new friends.
Light the wick, let the paper lantern fill with hot air, then release. There is a definitely a science though as to when to let go - too soon and the lantern will plummet . . . ahem Wendy.
Thousands and thousands of these went up all night long. It was mesmerizing.
Kid friendly lanterns.
The road near Tha Pae Gate was closed for the New Year festivities and there were stalls and street food everywhere. Neon colored ice cream mochis. 
My personal favorite . . . sushi by the piece. Yum seaweed roll!
Mounds of pad thai and rice noodles.
And no New Years is complete without a giant firework show over the moat. Check out all the lanterns in the sky.
The temples were full of devotees all night long. The string tied around their heads are there to represent how we are all connected. That first girl though is more connected to her phone and texting.
Another owl store and a giant paper mache owl of course.
Not just a cat sculpture . . . but a margarine cat sculpture!!! As if eating bread wasn’t already awesome enough!
Our friends from the boat Water Musick met us for dinner and fruit shakes. They are now officially land lubbers too with their boat up for sale and a job back home in the states waiting.
We see monks every day here in Chiang Mai with all the wats.
