Loy Krathong in Mae Jo: Really an Adventure

Loy Kratong in Mae Jo. Picture fredalix - อาลิกส์

In Mae Jo แม่โจ้ (about 20km North from Chiang Mai) the ceremony is usually hold at the Lanna Dhutanka temple (behind Mae Jo University) on Saturday night of the weekend before Loy Krathong, so this year it was planned for Saturday 13th. But there are reports on tripadvisor.com, that there has been some political pressure. So the date has been changed to Saturday 20th (read more). The result was magical: The full moon rose just in the middle of the round place in front of the wat, where far over tenthousand people gathered for the event.

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Full moon over the temple in Mae Jo

Everybody sat on the floor for hours, taking part in long Buddhist prayers. Patience was needed, before the highlight of the night arrived:

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Preparing the hot air ballons

Thousands of hot air ballons, called "Khom Loy", were launched at the same time. You cannot imagine this moment of joy shared by thousends of people around you.

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Up they go - all together.


What followed, was not that joyful: Everybody tried to get home through a small street leading out of the temple kompound, for around one kilometer there was no more room between the bodies moving to the exit very slowly. And afterwards of course the streets back to Chiang Mai were full of traffic. One lesson learnt: You should not do this trip without a good guide, who is able to get contact with your driver and get you back to the car in all this traffic. And: We were grateful, that all people on the way out kept calm - it's hard to imagine, what could have happened, if some people would have got a panic attack.

See this video from 2009 by chipoisonphoto.

Loy Kratong in Mae Jo. Picture fredalix - อาลิกส์



Discover more:
Your Guide to Chiang Mai



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