A WILD 2 WEEK RIDE

A few weeks ago we were in a hotel in Vancouver. I looked out the window and saw a sea of red leaves. The season was changing, the nights were getting cold. A long, multi flighted day took care of all that (Vancouver/Taipei/Bangkok/Chiang Mai) On the first segment one might have thought he was on a bus in the Punjab. I'd guess that no more than 5% of the passengers were not Indian. Taipei was a long layover in a rather boring transit area but negotiating immigration in Bangkok was quicker and easier than I thought it would be. The flight to Chiang Mai took off an hour late. We stayed in 2 different hotels in Chiang Mai while looking for an apartment to rent. Noni's family from Bangkok, tired of living in their flooded house, decided to join us here for the Loy Krathong festival weekend, not exactly what we needed while trying to get settled.

Last night was our first night in our new suite. It was a weird night to move in.

The suite is on the 17th floor of a condo building called 'Rimping'  It is on the bank of the Ping River which runs through Chiang Mai and overlooks the lower part of the city. Loy Krathong is a high spirited celebration - sort of like a Thai Yom Kippur where they send flower floats out on the river and ask the gods that be to forgive them for any sins they MIGHT have committed during the past year. There were lots of flowers out on the river, parades on every major thoroughfare and fireworks - from sunset to sunrise. Did you know that noise travels upwards and stops at the 17th floor? Now you do. So do we.

Vancouver from the Best Western window

Rooftops from the condo fire escape

One floating balloon
 

The NakornPing Bridge just below our balcony
swarming with people and food stalls on Loy Krathong.

Looking over the city with 100s of
the floating balloons

In addition to fireworks they send up cotton balloons rising from the heat of a ring of kerosene soaked paper. some of these have fireworks attached to them as well. The number of these floating around all night was unbelievable. I'm told that the airport cancels all flights at sundown due to the hazard these things can cause.