Day 26: Chiang Rai, Sunny, 37°!

Singha International Balloon Festival! AMAZING!!

Late yesterday afternoon at 15:30 our driver picked us up as agreed at our hotel and drove us well out of town to the quite extensive Singha Park. Singha is one of Thailand’s two major breweries and one would assume a major sponsor of quite a number of events in the country.

AM had come across the balloon festival while we were trying to sort out in what order we should venture to Chiang Mai versus Chiang Rai. Now a gathering of hot air balloons has long been on my, Things I Would Really Like To Experience Before I Die list. Yes, I do have such a list, and I update it about every 5 years or so.🙃 Once we found out the dates for the balloon gathering, the decision for the order of visits was basically carved in stone.

We arrived at the park about a half hour later and joined the long line of vehicles waiting to enter.

After exchanging phone numbers our driver left for home and we started the process of getting into the event site. First a walk across one of the extensive motorcycle parking areas.

The festival only opened at 15:30 so things were just getting underway when we arrived and crowds were small. As we were directed to one of many song theaw (2 benches) transports we were joined by Nicolas from Berlin. Nicolas was a very nice fellow who was taking a two month break between newspaper jobs. He asked if he could hang out with us for a while until things got going. No problem.

After a while things finally started to ramp up. A couple of pickup trucks arrived and began to unload the big baskets and other ballooning gear. This was really going to happen!

Then the helium burners started to be tested.

Initially there were just three or four units getting unpacked.

But once the first balloons began to inflate that soon changed.

The amazing thing was that there were absolutely no restrictions on where people could stand. None! I’m not sure if this is normal at these events, but I was shocked and delighted! Free to walk where I wanted, without any questions asked. I was grinning ear to ear like a little boy in a candy shop! I took probably 200+ photographs and perhaps as many as 20 videos. I was definitely in a very happy place!🥳😃

And as one balloon filled and lifted of another crew would pull up, unload and roll out the next balloon. It was simply, endless fun!

It’s now 23:00 and I’m still pumped about our experience this evening. Wide awake too. However, AM is reminding me that we have to be up early tomorrow for another exceptional morning activity. So I’ll have to continue writing this tomorrow.😬 Might be tough to get much sleep tonight!

Later:

It was completely insane as the balloon all around us were lifting off, and the sounds of the big burners were all around us. So cool!!

Some of the balloons initially experienced difficulties getting adequate lift as they drifted out over the lake. The gas burners would be firing away as the operators frantically worked to get airborne. There were several emergency boats on the lake which was good to see.

This was truly an international event with balloons from around the globe including one from Ottawa, Canada.

A few of the balloons were tethered to the ground to give rides to those who wanted one, but the majority were sailing free.

And as the sun set…

…we sauntered inside to the live stage area.

The evening was now just getting started. A huge stage with thousands of seats had been set up. Rather, thousands of tables with thousands more chairs had been set up. I couldn’t imagine the work it took to pull this together. There must have been a team of hundreds. The concert seating area was surrounded by dozens and dozens of food stalls, and of course drinks/beer booths.

We walked through the crowd, looking for a place to sit and at each table where we asked if we could sit because of apparent empty chairs, our request was denied. However, as we got closer and closer to the front just opposite the stage, too young women signalled for us to come and join them. It was a lovely gesture.

AM had read that there might be traditional dancing on the stage tonight, we soon decided that this happened the night before. Instead we were treated to a series of Thai rock bands. Some of them not too bad. We might have guessed by the general ages of the crowd that this might not be a folk dancing night!😅 However, we had a table with nice company close to the stage, so we decided to stay and have dinner, and some fun.

We decided that this was as much of a cultural show as anything else we might have watched.

We were just beginning to think about texting our driver to give her the 30’ pick up notice. I glanced over my right shoulder just as a delighted gasp went up from the crowd. Balloons!

Some of the balloons were flying or tethered just beyond the crowd! We decided to stay. Good decision.

We soon said our thanks and goodbyes to the girls and walked slowly out of the crowd in search of the night flight balloons.

All the balloons were tethered, and as we wandered through them it soon became apparent that there were plans a foot!

The organizers started to boom out some music and the balloon operators would light their burners to the rhythm of the music. Very special and fortunately I took some good videos.

I spotted some photo opportunities by the lake and walked down to have a look. A took a series of photos until I got the shot I was looking for. This isn’t it, but still I like it.

The photo I like the most will likely be going on my photo wall. Later I showed that photo to the hotel staff when they asked about the evening. They asked me if I was going to sell it. AM reminded me that there is a photo contest at the festival with a $350 purse. I’m still not going to sell it or give the rights away. 😊

Then the fireworks joined the music. Magic.

We texted for our ride pickup, and with our remaining time we walked over to see the last group of balloons, the ones we could see from inside the concert grounds.

And then it was time to go, in reverse order as we had arrived.

An amazing experience made even better by the three people we met. Oh and the three French guys in my age group who I was talking with about walking in their country just as the first balloons were being unpacked, But that’s another story, perhaps for my memoirs.😬

This all happened yesterday afternoon and evening. Today’s adventure I will write today and post tomorrow which is your today at home and will be a day later here when we go to bed in Cambodia tomorrow, right? Those of you in Oz will find everything the same as usual, with tomorrow being tomorrow. I’m sure you are pleased to hear this.😉

On that note, our driver friend will pick us up tomorrow early and drop us out at the airport. We fly to Bangkok and then on to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We have figured out a few fun adventures while there and have decided that we won’t likely need a SIM card in Cambodia. As least I hope not.🤔

Now on to tomorrow’s blog…today.

Cheers!🍻

Geoff