Thursday 5 December 2024
Seeing the Iron Bridge at night

The Iron Bridge in Chiang Mai, known locally as Sapphan Khua Lek, is transformed for the holidays with vibrant decorations. These decorations are installed before Loy Krathong in November and remain on display well after the New Year celebrations.

Loy Krathong, one of Thailand’s important festivals, takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. Consequently, the festival’s dates vary annually. In the Western calendar, this falls in November. In Chiang Mai, the festival lasts three days. In 2023, Loy Krathong was celebrated on November 24-26, so I arrived in Chiang Mai to see the celebrations firsthand. However, this year, the festival occurred earlier on November 15-17, and I arrived in Chiang Mai shortly thereafter.

The decorations on the Iron Bridge change every year, offering a new visual experience each time. Last year there were very colorful lanterns and wave-like patterns as seen in these photos:

 

This year, the Iron Bridge decoration is a larger light show. My video is over 90 seconds, and some of the light transitions are slow, so be patient. This is my first attempt at capturing and including a video in my blog. The “clideo.com” watermark on the video is from the company that makes the “free” software to reduce the size of the video – I took this video). After making the video I saw that it was over 140 MB. Reducing the size made it just under 40 MB, so it was easier to upload to YouTube and then link to my blog. Enjoy the light show on the Sapphan Khua Lek in Chiang Mai:

Mornings are cool (for Thailand) at about 21-23 C (70-72 F) and the afternoons are 32-33 C (89-91 F). Unfortunately (for me), the evening cool-down is very slow, and by 9 PM, the temperature is still in the high 20s. That is why I make my long, exploratory walks in the mornings when I have no yoga class or strength training appointment.

So, if this video works well, I’ll add more videos to my blog. I may also have to learn how to edit the videos. For example, this Iron Bridge video is too long to post on Instagram, and if I learn to make just an excerpt, I could post that. Always more things to learn.

Next: Revisiting three temples in the north of the old city