31-Dec-2013 New Year’s Eve

As is usual, I have spent part of the day walking around parts of the city, this time seeing preparations for the New Year’s Countdown Festival 2014. I had what is called an Osteo-Thai massage by Dao, a French woman I know from Wild Rose Yoga. Dao and her partner, David, teach Osteo-Thai massage which is described as a bridge between east and west, a form of bodywork combining the Thai massage techniques with the precise touch of osteopathy. The goal is to make some headway on the lower back problem that is still plaguing me, generally slowing me down, and keeping me off the yoga mat.

Dinner at The Duke’s

After the massage, I walked back to 3-Sis, and found myself craving American food. This is a little odd, because there is so much good and varied food in Chiang Mai. But, being the last day of the year, and feeling a little sympathetic to my craving, I headed to a place highly recommended, The Duke’s on the Ping River. The Duke’s is an American-style bar and grill well-known for ribs, burgers, steaks, and pizza. Many ex-pats here claim The Duke’s to have the best pizza in all of Chiang Mai.

I opted for a ceasar salad and a bacon cheese-burger. They were both good, but filling, and I had no room, nor even an inclination to peruse the dessert menu. I have been told that The Duke’s dessert menu is also one of the best for American-style desserts in Chiang Mai, with cheesecake, ice-cream-topped fudge brownies, the works. I was going to walk back – need to offset the large calorie infusion.

Chiang Mai Countdown Festival 2014

I headed back to the Tha Phae Gate area where the main stage for the New Year’s festival was set up, and it was a long, slow walk, as the entirety of Tha Phae Road, from just over the Ping River all the way to Tha Phae Gate had become a night market of sorts. There were many vendors, and crowds and crowds of people. A slow, but interesting walk. I got to the Tha Phae Gate area, and caught just the ending of a traditional Thai group who had been dancing and singing. I listened to more rock-style trio playing (guitar, drums, and a female singer), and they were pretty good, but the music was in Thai, so I did not really understand it.

It is a dark picture, but you can see the guitarist on the left, the singer on the right, and the drummer’s head can be seen below the “4” in 2014. These three were really, really loud, and there was a microphone right in front of the bass drum, so whenever the drummer hit the bass drum, everyone’s body vibrated. Perhaps this makes up for not having a bass guitarist. Very Loud!

The Lanterns

I drifted over to watch people launching lanterns along part of the moat. These are not really plastic, but not just paper, either, and after lighting the wax center, they fill with hot air, you and a friend hold it until you feel it tugging, then you let go and let it drift up into the sky. There were a few hundred of these in the sky all the time from after dark to very late.

The idea is to make a wish or wish someone well and launch the lantern.

Here is a lady launching her lantern.

And these kids were having so much fun with theirs.

I drifted back to the stage area, listened to some prize giveaways in Thai for a little while, listened to another band, and by 9:30 or 10:00 was getting pretty tired, so I started walking back to 3-Sis. When I walked into the lobby, the staff had a lantern on the front desk, and were drawing their names and sayings on it. They asked me to add my name, and we stepped outside to the open field next door and lit and launched the lantern. When we came back in, Poppy (the owner of 3-Sis) had drawn a caricature of me on another lantern:

We took this photo and headed out to launch the “Jim” lantern.

Here are Boom and I launching the Jim lantern. Boom’s face was cut off, and there was no time for a second shot.

I was so touched and honored. Thank-you, Poppy!

Happy New Year to you and all of the 3-Sis family.

At midnight, the loud and long series of explosions of fireworks started. There had been sporadic fireworks all night, but at midnight, the sound became quite intense and continued for a half an hour or more, then the unofficial firework explosions continued for another hour, more frequently than earlier.

New Year’s is also a holy day. Many, many people go to the temples for the evening. The monks at Wat Chedi Luang across the street had been chanting into their PA system most of the evening, and at 3-Sis, we could hear the chanting quite clearly. The chanting continued into the night, and was still going when I finally drifted to sleep at about 2:30.