What a View

This is taken really close to our house. The rains came and cleared up the polution, revealing the great view we have! Thailand is beautiful!

Lanterns in the Sky

Recently we celebrated Loy Krathong Festival!  

Loy Krathong Day is one of the most popular festivals of Thailandcelebrated annually on the Full-Moon Day of the Twelfth Lunar Month. It takes place at a time when the weather is fine as the rainy season is over and there is a high water level all over the country.

"Loy" means "to float" and a"Krathong" is a lotus-shaped vessel made of banana leaves. The Krathong usually contains a candle, three joss-sticks, some flowers and coins.

In fact, the festival is of Brahmin origin in which people offer thanks to the Goddess of the water. Thus, by moonlight, people light the candles and joss-sticks,

make a wish and launch their Krathongs on canals, rivers or even small ponds. It is believed that the Krathongs carry away sins and bad luck, and the wishes that have been made for the new year due to start. Indeed, it is the time to be joyful and happy as the sufferings are floated away.The festival starts in the evening when there is a full moon in the sky. People of all walks of life carry their Krathongs to the nearby rivers. After lighting candles and joss-sticks and making a wish, they gently place the Krathongs on the water and let them drift away till they go out of sight.

We decided to get a head start on the festival by lighting off a lantern a couple days in advance.  It was huge!  So we walked down our street to a field, away from power lines, and got ready to send off our lantern.


Bethany got down to help fan the flame.  It was alittle difficult seeming as how it was windy out there!  But we got her started....



However, once lit we have to wait and wait for the lantern to fill up with warm air while keeping her steady so that she doesn't catch on fire as we wait (with the wind it was alittle hard).


Still waiting.....


and waiting....



The inside of a lantern looking up

All was going well until the wind came through and Brookie trying to stabilize it accidently put a rip in it....it was a no go.  But that left us with a lantern aflame with no possible way of floating off....we ripped the paper part and walked over to the cement where we could put out the fire.

Then on the actually night we joined the other hundreds of people in down town Chiang Mai to celebrate and light off lanterns.  It was so amazing. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the night sky was with hundreds and hundreds of glowing lanterns!!!!  My pictures don't do justice!  I wish you all could have seen it yourselves.  

Traffic was crazy!  We dropped off the car and then took a "tuk tuk" (open cart thing on three wheels and a motor) It was freezing but we were somewhat warm sitting crammed in there.


We walked for a bit till we got down by the river.  There is a main bridge in town which is just taken over by pedestrians with fireworks and lanterns!  It was pretty crazy out there.  You constantly had to be watching your back and head!  Some lanterns wouldn't float up fast enough but were still getting carried by the wind....some close calls for some people with their hair catching fire!  All in all a great night......

look closely....all the little white dots are lanterns...


the bridge of chaos 





Ready for take off



Ours is the closest one up in the left front of the picture..the big one...

a proud moment!

We got tired of the crowed bridge so we went down by the river side and watched from there.  

Battle of the Bands and House/Babysitting

I was asked to stay with two girls while their parents where in the US.  During one of the weekends I was with them we attended the battle of the bands for our school.  

Kelly was the driver.  We went along collecting all the high school students....

Emilee, Faith, and Mikal Ann

Sage and Grace


Myself and Jade
Our Rock Hard Faces


Faith and I
After many many bands and songs...our ears began to hurt, almost felt like they were bleeding and I was ready to go home....am I getting old?

On the way home we picked up some more people for a ride home...lets see we had 14 people plus our driver, Kelly.  Yep, that is how we do it Thai Style!



Grace and I....I told her I would be able to run with her on my back....

I didn't make it far and I was tuckered out!!

Treking

Kelly and I wanted to do something adventurous on our last day off before work started up again. So, we signed up with a trecking company to do a five our hike in the mountains. So we woke up early on Tuesday and jumped on the bike. We parked and waited for our ride to come pick us up. Kelly was concerned that it was going too be chessy and easy and we would be stuck with retired people. We really didn't know what to expect, who would be in our group, how many people, easy hike or not, where we would go....but regardless we were excited for the change.

I were dropped off at the meeting point and waited for another 10 minutes or so. There were a good number of people there but we didn't know which of them were with our treck group. We finally got into that back of this truck and headed north on a hour drive.

Our group: the two German brothers, the two French men, the two girls from Holland, the two girls from the US who were "together", our two thai guides, and Kelly and I. It was great to hear their stories and where they are all from and where they are going.

On the ride up there...

Hill Tribe People





First stop, so far so good....



We soon learned that it wasn't a pansy hike through the woods...there were times we were on a climb up for a long time. The back of your leggs were just on fire! Man...talk about working up a good sweat. We hiked through bamboo forests, shrebbery, stickers (not fun), through creeks, over fallen trees, rocks, roots.....at times it didn't even look like a trail. Single file we hiked and hiked.....







Lunch time finally came and we were at the base of a waterfall. After lunch, Kelly, the two french men and I all got in the freezing water. We jumped from the rocks several times and cooled off. After lunch we headed UP another long stretch towards the bat cave.
Half way there, sweaty and tired

Kelly had to use the outhouse....I for one would hold it for hours than go in there...

The French men and our guide, fanning themselves



The cave was alright not too impressed with it. It was dark, damp, and all you could hear were the hundreds of bats over our heads. We made our way out of the cave and were all getting our backpacks on and ready to head out. I was standing on a rock and turned to say something to Kelly who was washing up behind me. The next thing I knew I was falling......I think I only toppled a meter down but it was over all these rocks and mud. I finally catch myself from falling further. There was this gasp from everyone and then "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" I got up quickly and said yes I was fine. I went back up to the spring and washed the mud and blood off of me. I realized I was bleeding from my elbow and shin. I took my shirt and wet it down and then tied it pretty tight around my leg to keep in clean for the rest of the hike. We had about an hour left to our hike and then another hour truck ride.


When all was done, we far past BO, tired, and hurting, but felt bonded after our 20 kl hike!

The next two days were rough. My body was so sore from the hike, I literally waddled about at work.

FOUR DAYS LATER:


Infected....

Went to the Dr. and got meds

doing much better, still hurts...but getting better PTL