Beyond Mae Kampung: Discover Pa Miang’s Unique Loy Krathong

Beyond Mae Kampung: Discover Pa Miang’s Unique Loy Krathong

in the previous episodes we spent a total of four nights completing the MaeHongSon loop stopping by along places like Pai, Banjabo Ban Rak Thai and even camped at Doi Mae U Kho after saying goodbye to the friends we made along the way and splitted ways I decided to drop by at Doi Inthanon before heading back to the main city of Chiang Mai just in time for the start of the Loy Krathong Festival Doi Inthanon is the highest point in Thailand and temperatures can reach as low as in the negatives during the coldest period of the year many people like to come here to see the sunrise or the sunset I have seen some videos online where people came early in the morning and the sea of mist looks really really good during my visit I just came to take some photos for memories sake and even in the short period of time that I was here my hands were too cold to even ride properly by the time I reached back in the city it was nighttime and I had to book an accommodation on the outskirts of Chiang Mai city as most of the hotels were fully booked during the LoyKrathong Festival each year it always falls in the cold season of Thailand and not just foreign tourists but locals from all other regions of Thailand would be moving up north to enjoy the enjoyable weather hence it is considered the peak travelling season of northern Thailand LoyKrathong is celebrated throughout the whole of Thailand but in the northern provinces it coincides with the Yipeng Festival which is the one where you see many viral videos online of people releasing the sky lanterns personally I would love to visit the Sukhothai province for the LoyKrathong festival as according to history it is the birthplace of the tradition and yearly the celebrations there are quite huge in scale Here you can see her plucking her hair before placing it in the Krathong and then releasing it into the river and the significance of it is to release the bad luck and negativity from the previous year Is there anywhere else to float the Krathong? Yes over there Forty baht each. Hello 40 baht Thank you, which one will you have? Uh, this one. Take this. Just float it, right? Yes just release it Light here and this and float. Need to wish Yes pray This side to float Hi, can I borrow your lighter Can can Can you help me to light it Oh no, it went out Is it ok? oh oh oh there are a lot of places in Chiang Mai where you can celebrate the LoyKrathong Festival such as the Ping River, Tha Phae Gate or KhlongMaeKha etc and each of it has its own vibe The LoyKrathong Festival in Thailand is typically celebrated for three days so you can go and check out the different areas each day however for me all of the places which I checked out in the city couldn’t even compare to the experience which I had in the Mountain Village which I came across my initial plans was to stay in MaeKamPong but based on a little research I found that it is quite touristy and a little too crowded for my liking instead I decided to book a random homestay by tracing the road further up MaeKamPong towards the Lampang province one tip when driving by yourself in Thailand is to plan the timing of your routes properly especially when you are in the mountainous or forest areas, because in many places there are no lights and in some places no signal at all here, I wanted to go slow as it was very dangerous with sharp turns steep slopes and water streams here and there but honestly I was quite scared and just wanted to reach the homestay ASAP even the homestay owner had to call me midway as she was worried that something had happened to me along the way Foreigner because of the accent What tradition is this called? Lantern Khom Saay, right? Khom Saay. Specifically for here? Because… There’s no river here. We’re on the mountain We don’t have LoyKrathong. Do you know LoyKrathong? Yes Because we are on the mountain, instead of floating the Krathong in the water, We parade it the lanterns And then walk instead of LoyKrathong Because we don’t have a river Is it like Yipeng? Not the same. Yipeng we release the lantern But this we hang it on a line, and do a parade Let’s go and see it They prepared it at the 3way intersection Ben here will be a little cold. But it’s not very cold today. we are going to the starting point okay Speak Thai! Means here they don’t LoyKrathong right? Yes. They will do it like that Show unity and make it very long and then march to the temple for a parade At the homestay there is water, is it not There’s water. Uh, But not a big river. Oh, okay. This one is a stream like a small, small creak, right? LoyKrathong just needs to be in the big river? Big river right. Yep. This one is a forest upstream. Forests Upstream Oh, okay. We are in the forest. And it’s the beginning of the water Our small stream Makes up the river. Tomorrow must look clearly Because… I didn’t see anything just now. The kids will play fireworks. In Singapore we can’t play it Right, the police will catch Ben want to see the fireworks? What time will it start? 8pm Oh? Who said 7pm, took the guest out and walk they said they postpone to eight o’clock oh meaning start at 8pm? yeah let me let me check let me check okay they got drunk and then they postpone they’re not ready yet Oh, not going yet. This child can bring you for a hike in the forest. This one’s good at hiking if you want to go Now? No, no, no, no. If Ben is available on another day What’s this called? Uh, Betong. Betong. Betong. Betong from France. The sport of French, Betong. How to play? Is that it’s going to have a center, right? You will throw Who’s closest to the centre point. The red point Ben This is the village chief The leader of the village Fun, fun like Hang out together But this one is Drinking Does the song have any meaning? It’s a country song. People in the province like country songs. So they sing. And will there be many people to see later? About 50-60, to a 100 people, not a lot But they will hold this one together to carry to the temple Okay. Oh, have to carry it to the temple. Yeah. Oh, okay. They would parade and they would sing. What is the meaning of carrying it to the temple? There is unity. What is Sammakee? Sammakee is unity Oh, okay, okay, there’s unity. they show their unity because they have to carry this all all the way from here to the to the temple since we don’t have LoyKrathong so we create something else instead of LoyKrathong we have those i don’t know what they call but it’s like um How do they choose the next village chief? If the chief, um, Passes away, right? Hmm. We will elect Election, election, of the chief. Vote. Ah, okay. Vote for the village leader But the village leader retires at 60 oh ok so now he is 51 there is more 9 years left Either 60years old or pass away right? Yes Oh, Ben study online can speak this much? Ah, sometimes find friends online to practice speaking a little Ohh, good Where are the other customers? Oh, on the second floor, third floor. Oh, okay. Where Ben stays, Oh, Ben is on the second floor. There is a room on the first floor. which is a room beside the water Oh, yeah, beautiful. More beautiful, right? Sorry na But it’s been occupied already Just now when I called, it’s the last room right? Yes Because now it’s high season Other customers are Thai or All Thai people Oh Therefore, Ben can practice speaking Thai. Later they will go together? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When there are foreign guests here the owners here will ask me to come How do they know it’s a foreigner? Because they called to say that there are foreigners Because just now I called You spoke Thai right? Yeah, means the accent is not good yet. She said that the client speaks Thai but I think he is a foreigner. Yeah, yeah. Then have to, uh, practice a lot. Like this is good already Ben Let Ben eat first Very chill Yeah Very very chill Sit here tomorrow, to drink coffee If Ben want to see the stars Rooftop. You wanna see? Yup Can go up. Be careful Yes, this sound Just follow him Hello! Hello. Sawadeekub Sawadee Hello, p’Ben first. Sawadeekub Hellooo this way this way you want me to take a photo of you? yes, yes video is ok too thank you Do you want picture? It’s okay. video is ok What is your name? Un uea kub Can’t hear. Un uea Un uea Un uea wants to be a tiktoker Un uea You want to be a tiktoker right? Okay, tomorrow morning. Okay, tomorrow. Tomorrow, 7pm At 7pm come meet me Will you come to watch a movie with me? I will go to the movies at Aunt Ae’s house too. 7pm lhor? Tomorrow, Un uea goes to school. When Un uea doesn’t go to school, take p’Ben to travel ok? What is that? What? Do you need help? I will release lantern with you. Okay, can Not scary at all Very scary. It’s not scary. If you come on a Saturday I will definitely take you to travel. Travel to where? Travel all over the village If leg is not sore There are bears too. Aunt has bears too, right? Ben can you pray? Can Now we have to pray right? Yes Big brother you can pray right? yes Sit down Pray three rounds three times This is us offering the lantern to the temple. We will pray and we will pay homage In Thai we have different level when we speak with monk ‘giving’ we will say ‘thaway’ not ‘hai’ If we give anything to the monk we will use the word ‘thaway’ This is the president of the tourism community He is practicing Thai He can speak Thai, no need to worry He thought you are Japanese. If one day is not enough, two days Yeah, can right? Yes, because this trip didn’t plan anything. If we can speak Thai, Stay here very comfortably, we will survive. Ben come float away all the bad luck Let go now? Try to release and see. Give me a five See you tomorrow 7pm na Ben let’s go home. But this room is not very cold because this room is inside. It’s cold too Goodnight na Okay, thank you Tell me if you need anything Okay. Do you need more water? It’s okay, one bottle is enough in the next episode we will explore more of this village and see why my initial planned one night stay here became a total of four days if you are looking for non typical and non touristy adventurous travel in Thailand do check out the link in the description below we have tours with private vehicles and licensed local tour guides as well

After completing the MaeHongSon loop, we return back to ChiangMai city, just in time for the LoyKrathong festival. But, all of the city celebrations couldn’t beat that of a hidden village we found. Watch to find out more!

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Episode 11 – Coming soon

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Cameras used:
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Accessories used:
To be Added

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:43 Doi Inthanon
1:30 What is LoyKrathong about
2:30 Watching girl Loy Krathong
3:00 Loy my own Krathong
4:40 Places in Chiangmai to LoyKrathong
5:47 Heading to the mountain village
6:43 Why is it celebrated differently
7:26 Hanging out with the villagers
11:46 Chit chat
14:14 Khom Saay Festival
17:04 Praying in the temple
18:36 Releasing Lantern
19:54 Preview next episode