Dip trip flip fantasia. There are two big holidays in Northern Thailand that are celebrated: Loi Krathong and Yi Ping. They fall around the same time as the USA’s holiday of Thanksgiving, so Shiv and I found ourselves celebrating a lot of holidays in a short amount of time. Let the festivities begin.
Loi Krathong
Loi Krathong is held on the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai lunar calendar, but in Chiang Mai they celebrate it over the course of three days. Stemming from an ancient Indian tradition, this holiday is meant to honor Buddha or the water goddess Phra Mae Kong Ka, depending on one’s beliefs. A krathong is a small float made of banana leaves, flowers, candles, and incense sticks. As you light the candles and incense, you say a wish and float it down the river. It also symbolically represents bad fortune being discarded and floating away.
We bought a krathong for 30 baht, lit it up, and gently placed it down on the Ping River where it joined many other beautiful floats already drifting by. It was quite lovely to see all the floating lights. You can also see fireworks (some of them dangerously close to you), parades, beauty contests, and a large number of street parties. It’s a massive, fun celebration that both locals and farangs enjoy.
Yi Ping
Yi Ping is a festival unique to Chiang Mai, and it falls on the same days as Loi Krathong. In addition to water floats, the people of Chiang Mai release thousands of giant paper lanterns into the sky while making a wish. Looking up into the dark sky, one is taken aback by all of the beautiful, gently floating lanterns that freckle the sky.
It was unfortunately very hard for us to get a decent picture, so please check out this, this, and this for some good images. It makes you want to say wow! over and over again.
We celebrated the big night with two new friends, Kayne and Billy. Our good friend Bgold put us in touch with his friend Kayne, from work, who was going to be in the area. Kayne was traveling with his friend, Billy. The night before the holidays, we planned a little Chiang Mai rendezvous to all our favorite places: Northgate Jazz Club and Cowboy Hat Lady for dinner. However, on this night, we found ourselves gravitating towards unhealthy American fare, like McDonald’s french fries and pizza. In our defense, we tried finding places to eat but a lot of restaurants had actually run out of food as the celebration draws a lot of people.
Thanksgiving
For those of you outside of the US, Thanksgiving is a national holiday that celebrates a successful harvest for the Pilgrims (first settlers in New England) and them literally giving thanks to God. Supposedly, the Pilgrims and Native Americans joined forces to make a delicious dinner. Today in America, it means eating a large, early dinner of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie amongst family and friends. It also usually involves football (the American kind) watching while you digest the hearty meal.
We made a last-minute decision to attempt a meal and went to the grocery store to see what we could find. Amazingly, they had Stove Top stuffing! We added a can of corn, a gravy packet, and fresh rolls to our cart, too. Since we couldn’t find turkey, we substituted pork katsu for the meat. Not bad, right?
Unfortunately, I was still feeling the effects of the obnoxious stomach bug from Laos, with no real indication that this thing was going to let up. I was still massively bloated and was now experiencing waves of quite painful cramping. I had actually emailed three of our GI doctor friends for some guidance earlier in the week and we all agreed that I’d just wait it out since I was already a week into it.
But Thanksgiving night proved difficult and painful, and I ended up doing a phone consult with Shiv’s cousin, Navin (who also moonlights as a wedding emcee). In the end, we decided that I should get on the Zpack I was prescribed prior to leaving on the trip – it’s an antibiotic for traveler’s diarrhea. We also ended up pushing out our departure date for Vietnam by one day, just to be sure I didn’t need any other medical attention.
I took the 500mg pill and hoped for the best. Shiv put on some football (it was Thanksgiving, after all), and also hoped for the best. And the best did happen: I started feeling better and the Bears beat the Packers! Silver lining, folks, silver lining.
Special thanks to Drs. Lingam, Wadhwani, and Nawaz for your medical guidance. Now you know more about me than you ever wanted to know.
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