Lights in the Sky, Lights on the River

At the full moon in the twelfth lunar month--in other words, right now--Chiang Mai celebrates two festivals at once, the festival of lights known as Yee-Peng and a worship ritual called Loy Krathong in which people honor the spirit of the river by sending down it little floats made from flowers, candles and banana leaves.

You'd think the Thai might not feel like celebrating rivers in this year of devastating floods, but these festivals are also a time of letting go of bad luck and making wishes for good luck to come. And Chiang Mai has been celebrating with a vengeance.

People all over town decorated their entryways for the occasion:

Flower-sellers laid out the materials for making the krathongs and sold ready-made prayer boats as well:

The Burmese kids at Thai Freedom House decorated their krathongs with great enthusiasm:

 I got a kick out of it myself:

Tonight, the last night of the festival, featured the biggest parade yet:

And down by the river, as they have for several nights, people gathered to light their lanterns, let them fill with hot air and send them up to the night sky:

(KK)

Little Altars Everywhere

One of the delights of strolling around Chiang Mai is coming across the spirit houses that stand outside many homes and businesses. These little dollhouse-like structures--all different--house guardian spirits who are kept in a good mood (like anybody would be) through frequent offerings of food and fresh flowers. Here are a few Rie and I found:

 I love how the person who made this offering thoughtfully provided straws for the soda and the coconut. (MK)

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 This one has a spray of fresh orchids among the lit sticks of incense. (KK)

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Then there are the prayer offerings at spots like the city's north gate:

(KK)

or a banyan tree along the moat:

(KK)

 

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or my favorite, to these very cheerful figures in front of a clothing store:

(KK)

(KK)

Seemingly Fearless: A Tribute to My Travel Buddy

Vilcabamba, Ecuador

As I write this, Rie is somewhere over the South China Sea, on her way back to the U.S. to visit her daughter, move in with her boyfriend and interview for a new job. I wish she could have stayed on in Chiang Mai so we could share the final weeks of this amazing year of travel. But I understand her reasons for heading home, and 10 ½ months on the road together is pretty darn good.

In fact, it’s been a fantastic time, and it wouldn’t have been half as much fun without my big sister. So here’s a toast to Rie, who helped keep the cheers level high despite flat tires, collapsing ceilings, would-be purse snatchers, and the big hairy rat in Indira Gandhi International Airport. Together, we traveled on all-night buses, crowded colectivos and shaky taxi-brousses. We shared power outages, water outages, a plague of frogs—and several 30 Rock festivals when the challenges of travel temporarily got the better of us. 

Kuélap, Peru

Cataracta Gocta, Peru

 

Machu Picchu, Peru

Rie turned out to be a great spotter of distinctive potato chip flavors—Tomato Mischief in India, Nori Seaweed and Hot Chilli Squid in Thailand—and of distinctive cross-cultural fashions, like the super-cool dude strutting with his posse through the gare routière in Madagascar, wearing dark glasses and an “I [heart] Ben Affleck” t-shirt.

Huayna Picchu, Peru

Mirador de Patagonia, Punta Arenas, Chile

Isla Navarino, Chile

 

Parc national de L'Isalo, Madagascar

I intended to get trip t-shirts made up for us featuring a phrase from an email one of her friends sent early in the trip. He’d been reading the blog and said something about how “seemingly fearless” we were. ‘If only he knew!’ we thought. By then we were all too familiar with our own and each other’s recurring anxieties, from missing planes to getting robbed to running out of toilet paper. But together we managed to get past all those fears and keep the adventure going.

Gaborone, Botswana

Agra, India

Agra, India

We discovered and got past some differences too. One of us considers yogurt and granola a perfectly acceptable supper, one of us doesn’t. One of us thinks going out to hear Thai people sing country music is a great idea, one of us doesn’t. One of us thinks that if the cab is coming at 7:30, we should be out front at 7:25, and the other one doesn’t want to put down her coffee mug until 7:29. But the spats have been few, far between and minor, and after nearly a year of hard travel, there’s no doubt that we’re still friends. 

Varanasi, India

Thanks for believing we could make this incredible journey, Rie. Thanks for making it happen and for making it so much fun. And thanks for identifying all 56,743 species of yellow flower we encountered along the way. Any time you want to do this again, I’m up for it.

I’ll make sure we have lots of T.P.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

 

(KK)

Rie's African Adventure Part Two: Swaziland

Rie continues her account of her solo travels last summer.
 

Saying farewell to Namibia, I flew to the Kingdom of Swaziland, a small country (about the size of Connecticut) surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. The people are friendly and peaceful with no history of racial tensions. It was the perfect place to unwind, do some hiking, and see the countryside. I based myself in the Ezulini Valley, a beautiful, green valley set between Swaziland's two largest cities -- Manzini and Mbabane.

I first visited Mantenga Village, a living museum with traditional beehive huts, dancing and drumming.

I stopped by House on Fire, a wonderful outdoor theater/gallery/restaurant/art space.

I got to see white rhinos at Mkhaya Game Reserve.

I hiked up ancient Sibebe Rock and in the solitude of Malolotja National Preserve.

And, finally, I was fortunate to attend the Umhlanga Reed Dance. Once a year, young maidens from all over the country come to the royal compound to pay homage to the Queen Mother. This year 80,000 made the journey. During the week-long event, they stay in make-shift camps and cut reeds from nearby fields. On the day of the dance, they gather in groups from their villages and form a long, long line. Led by members of the royal family -- easily identified by the red  feathers in their hair -- they make their way, singing and dancing, to Lobamba to present the reeds to the Queen Mother. The girls are traditionally topless, and don't wear much else -- short skirts, colorful sashes and other acoutrements. Despite the cold drizzle, everyone seemed to be having a most wonderful time.

(MK)