Yi Peng

When we began planning this trip, we threw Chiang Mai on the list of places to go because we saw they had a lantern festival here. Then we made the trip around being here on November 9th to be part of it.

When we arrived a few days ago we were so upset to find out the launching of the lanterns was now illegal here because of safety concerns and they say it was a problem for the airport. We were bummed.

Different organizations have capitalized on this and have created their own festival locations away from the city, and charged the tourists and arm and a leg to come. Think hundreds of dollars. It was just too much for our budget.

Luckily, by chance we were chatting with our driver who took us out to the hot air balloon and he told us of a festival the locals go to about an hour away from the city - which was reasonable charge to get into. So we did it!!

They bussed us out to it, provided us dinner and 4 lanterns, 2 Krathongs and we had the time of our life. It was like a county fair atmosphere and It was so beautiful to sit and watch. We stayed three hours sitting on a bridge marveling at the sight of thousands of lanterns in the sky. (Think “Tangled”)

Overall, our few days here in Chiang Mai will go down as some of the best of the entire trip. Simply magical!

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