Lights on

Mae Hong Son, "the city of three mists" is a small town next to the border with Myanmar and although it is a capital of this mountainous region, it is very slow and quiet. You can easily walk everywhere and you will always end up in the natural center of the town, the Jong Kham lake with the wats Jong Klam and Jong Kham rising above it.

The lake and its temples

We came to Mae Hong Son to see the Loi Krathong - a festival celebrated in Thailand (and some parts of Laos and Myanmar) on the night of the full moon of the 12th month in Thai calendar. Its name means 'floating crown' and on this day people release crowns made of leaves and flowers on lakes or rivers, to celebrate the goddess of water, to let go of one's bad thoughts and anger, or simply to make a wish. Of course we got one too! 

Our loi krathong

Go, crown, go

It floats!

In northern Thailand, Loi Krathong coincides with another festival - Yi Peng, with thousands of sky lanterns (khom loi) being launched into the air. The most spectacular celebration of both takes place in Chiang Mai where myriads of people (many many tourists) come to participate in this feast of lights. 

We wanted to escape the crowds, as usual, and so we picked MHS as our destination for this special day. And we were not disappointed! It happened to be very local event with just a few foreigners like us hanging around, and it was a local celebration as it should be - with beauty pageant for little girls, muay thai boxing of the boys from the nearby villages, fireworks and tons and tons of delicious looking food (we tried all we could and luckily with no consequences). It was fantastic to see entire families releasing the krathongs onto the water, the kids with their eyes wide open watching the lanterns in the air, lights everywhere... Everyone was euphoric and so were we, feeling happy to be part of this magical evening.

Something on a stick?

Or a coconut ice cream?

The new Jean-Claude Van Damme

First khom loi above the Jong Klang temple

Happiness