The Chiang Mai Lantern Festival was one of the coolest accidental experiences we had in Thailand. Because we are such cultured travelers, we were completely unaware that the festival was even taking place until were told at breakfast one morning in Pai. So, the next day, Anna and I set off back down the mountain in a van with six other friends.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai, we made our way to our guesthouse, where we had reserved a room with four bunk beds. Shortly arrival, we took a quick dip in the pool and set out for Mae Jo University, which we had read was a good place to watch and participate in the festival. Our taxi dropped us off just outside of the university, and it took some wandering to figure out where exactly we were supposed to go, but eventually we found the crowd and just followed it towards the main area. On the way, we stopped at a road-side vendor to pickup our own lanterns to set off later. They were about $1 USD each, so we all purchased our own.
When we arrived at the main site of the festival, there appeared to be two main components to the area. There was a gated area in which you had to pay to enter (not sure what went on in there), and then a large mass of people gathered outside the gates on either sides of a creek, where it was free to hang out. Our group of eight found space on the opposite riverbank and settled in to await nightfall.
We weren’t sure when exactly to start releasing the lanterns into the sky, so we just waited for the crowd to follow suit. Soon after dusk, it was time. The crowd began to light their lanterns and soon the sky was filled with the yellow orbs floating into the night.
This was such a cool experience to take part in, as each lantern symbolizes releasing all of your ills and misfortunes from the previous year.
But the lanterns aren’t the only part of the Yee Peng festival that takes place throughout the city. After the lantern release, we hopped in the back of another taxi to take us back to the Old City, where the rest of the festivities were in full swing. It was complete mayhem, in the best way possible. Everywhere we went, people were singing and cheering and shooting fireworks every direction. In fact, as we crossed bridge over the river, a full-on firework (I’m talking the kind that the fire department sets off on the 4th of July) was set off like 30 feet from us. I can still feel the heat and the shockwave from it on my face. So that woke us all up.
In the Old City, we sat and watched the parade, while trying every form of street food we could get our hands on. I couldn’t believe how intricate some of the parade floats were, towering above the streets and jeopardizing the tangled power lines. We had a good laugh watching the men in front of the floats run ahead with long poles to hoist the power lines out of harm’s way.
When things finally started to wind down, we still weren’t ready to call it a night, so we set off for the infamous Zoe In Yellow. There we danced the remainder of the night away, making stops in the “underground” bars of Spicy and Las Vegas after Zoe in Yellow had closed. At one point, our group got separated and then reconvened at the entrance to Spicy. Happy to be reunited, our group let out a unified cheer and was quickly scolded by the bouncers for “attracting police”. Sometime around 3:00 am, we finally made the walk home from the bars with the sounds of fireworks and cheers from throughout the city still echoing into the night.
Once we were back at the guesthouse, Anna and I elected to sit in the hammocks outside of the room, reflecting on what was a day we will surely never forget.
