Chiang Mai Spirit

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Chiang Mai was to experience two festivals that apparently are on everyone's bucket lists, Loi Krathong and Yi Peng. I'm not usually one to follow the crowd but I'd heard that Chiang Mai was the place to be for beautiful celebrations - and it certainly was!

After a couple of days exploring the city, I met up with Hannah, Valerie and Cyd to enjoy the celebrations. We started our evening with some of Chiang Mai's famous noodle soup, Kow Soy and then headed down to the river Ping. On our way we stopped to buy a Krathong which were being made everywhere on the walk down to the river. Loi Krathong is celebrated every year on the full moon of the twelfth month in the Thai lunar calendar. People buy or make their own Krathong, which is a basket made from banana leaves and decorated with flowers a candle and incense sticks. It is tradition to release the Krathongs on water and make a wish. The lights that are floated down rivers are meant to symbolise the drifting away of bad luck and misfortune.

We took our Krathongs down to the crowded river banks, lit our candles and released them into the river. It was such a peaceful atmosphere as locals and tourists filled the river with hundreds of floating decorations.

We then headed to the Nawarat Bridge where most people stood to release lanterns for Yi Peng, the festival of lights. It is believed that launching one of the lanterns will send your bad luck and misfortune away into the air, especially if it disappears from view before the fire goes out. I wrote some messages on my lanterns before releasing them into the sky and letting my troubles float away. Not that I have many troubles at the moment, you're probably thinking!!

After releasing all our lanterns, we escaped the busy crowds and headed to the night market, where we stumbled across the best spot in Chiang Mai. I don't know what the place was called, it had live music, hay bales to sit on and was surrounded by loads of food stalls selling everything from Thai food to smoothies and pancakes. It felt like being at a festival. We got some Changs, shared some pizza and sat watching a sea of lanterns drift away into the moonlit sky. I felt so lucky and grateful to have experienced the celebrations in such a spiritual place. Chiang Mai has definitely been one of my favourite places to visit. 

I had so much fun spending time with my favourite American girls! The following day we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways to continue our adventures. 

Until next time, Chiang Mai...

Namaste x