I planned this trip around returning to the Yi Peng Festival in Chiang Mai since last year it was a fluke that we arrived in time for the festival and thoroughly enjoyed it. When Debbie and Neil wanted to join us on a golf trip to Thailand, I thought this would be a great experience for all of us and I used the experiences from last year to try to enhance this years experience.
One of our golfing friends from Margaret River was also going to be in Chiang Mai for the festival so I included Jo in our plans. Our group stayed in the Wealth Boutique Hotel, where Rosie and I stayed last year. Jo stayed at Anumat Premium Budget Hotel, which we thought was a very funny name. Jo met up with us on the Monday night for dinner at our favourite restaurant inside the walls, Kat’s Kitchen and then we went for a long walk home to her hotel. On the way we watched the Festival King, Queen, Prince and Princess ceremonies, then onto the Three Kings Monument, which was spectacular with the lantern displays. We only found out this year that people bought the lanterns (about $3) and then wrote messages on them before hanging them up next to the temple. Rosie bought two more lanterns, but bought them home instead of hanging them up.
After this we walked through back streets till we finally got to Jo’s hotel, the plan was to stop at a bar on the way home, but found 10 massage parlours but no bars. Once we arrived, we saw a bar just up the street so went in. It was a craft beer and wine bar so I was expecting exorbitant prices, but when I picked out the beers I was interested in, they told me that the price was $4.50, so I ordered two, bargain.
After golf at Gassan Khuntan (seriously the most interesting course we played) on Tuesday, we relaxed and then set off for the parade. We based our planning on last year’s experience, so we set off at 6:15pm to walk along the parade as it prepared to start, before a casual walk to our restaurant. Unfortunately I hadn’t allowed for Thai time, so the Parade started early and when we tried to walk to our restaurant, it was a solid crowd of people and a huge struggle to get to our location. We pushed our way through and reached the restaurant that I had booked which had a balcony overlooking the parade. When we arrived Jo and Elise had a couple of seats on the balcony, but other people had the rest. I assertively discussed with the waiter that we had this section booked (1000 baht deposit) and surprisingly he moved everyone on and our group of 8 got the whole balcony overlooking the parade.
It was a great, uninterupted, view and we felt very privileged. It took us a while to realise that no one was going to serve us (since it was so busy) so Rosie went down and ordered some finger food and a few beers. A bit more food kept arriving and a few more beers were drunk and by the end of the evening we had had plenty to eat and drink. We had a great time interacting with the crowd below and the people on the floats as they went past. We had a running joke about the “Ambassador of Japan” who kept jumping into all the parades as they passed by, for photo ops. He realised we were having fun with him and started to join in, taking photos of us on the balcony.
Typical of Thailand and their trust of people, the waiter came up to us late in the evening and asked what we had had to eat and drink. We couldn’t really remember the number of beers, but were good on the food. He just believed what we said and gave us a bill. I asked about the deposit and found out that it was more of a donation than a deposit. No problems I thought, just added it to our bill and split the cost. $25 per person for 3 hours of entertainment, food and drinks, bargain.
As we walked home, the girls collapsed into the ambulance and the Thai nurses helped to revive them. When we got back to our hotel, the local massage parlour madam was letting off lanterns into the Main Street.
Letting off lanterns in the city centre was banned a couple of years ago, due to navigation hazards for planes and possible damage to the city. Graham went walking the next day and took a photo of this shop, which was burnt down by an errant lantern, can’t help bad luck.
The few days in Chiang Mai were great, it is a lovely place to visit and staying inside the old walled city is a great experience. The many Boutique Hotels are great places to stay, and we loved our little hotel again.,
