Day 2- Yi Peng, lantern release at Mae Jo University

Have you ever seen the scene from Tangled where Rapunzel gets to see the floating lanterns that are released every year on her birthday? Well I have, more than once, and when I saw the picture on pinterest of golden lanterns floating up into the sky I decided that we definitely HAD to see that in person!!!

It was about as difficult as wrangling information out of the CIA. The date for the event isn't set until just a few weeks before so all my OCD planning in the spring was for naught. I finally found out that there was a buddhist event going on at Mae Jo University on the 24th. However, everything I read talked about how difficult it was to get transportation there and back and when travelling with a young child its always good to have a plan!!!!

I had emailed guides, and tour groups and the hotel and come up with nothing. I was at the point where I was going to rent a taxi for the day when I saw a blog post by a lady named Shannon from A Little Adrift: Travel Around the World that had attended the event with her daughter and I emailed her about it. She directed me to  the event with Thai Life Touring. I was so excited and emailed them right away only to be told that it was sold out. I was seriously bummed! I told them to let me know if anyone dropped out and then started contacting more guide companies again. In the meantime they did some organizing on their end and added another bus to the tour and let me know so I could book ASAP. They were beyond wonderful to deal with and went out of their way to be helpful. I am so grateful to them for helping us make the event, and to Shannon for pointing me in the right direction!!!

For $6.50 each we got bus transportation there and back, a fish each to release to make merit at the temple and a lantern for the three of us. At the temple the food and drink was free so it made for a VERY cheap day! **Note to Thai Life Touring that I would have paid ten times the price you asked for!!!

Our first stop was Wat Fah Ham to release our catfish into the river as a way of making merit with Buddha. It was interesting and the fish seemed very happy to be free, all except mine that is who was trying to swim BACK into the bag, perhaps he hit his head at some point. Reese was so confused as to why my fish was going the wrong way and seriously talked about it for DAYS!!!

Next we arrived at Tu Dong Ka Satarn behind Mae Jo University and were given instructions on how the event would proceed. We hung around in the field near our torch for a bit and watched the field fill up with people and then we saved our spot with Reese's hat and a few nearby people from our group and went to check out the food! We were blown away when we found out it was free, instead of paying people made donations to the box in the centre of the clearing. The food was mouthwatering. So many different things to try and while we had absolutely no idea what some of them were, they tasted awesome!!! This is where we became addicted to fried bananas :)

Then we went and hung out at our torch again and made friends with a Thai family sitting near us. They brought us more friend bananas and pad thai (which was also delicious) and then the ceremony started. There was lots of buddhist chanting, and some singing and praying. It was cool to sit in a field full of people, the majority which knew the prayers and chanted along.

Then finally, it was time to light the lanterns. A little old Thai lady came and helped us out to make sure ours didn't burn to pieces(for which I will forever be grateful!!!). Once it was lit it took a minute or two for the hot air to make the lantern puff out and rise and then we held onto it until it was time to make a wish and let it go!!!!! We all had big smiles on our faces afterwards and then it was time to look around and see them mass release. 

I don't think I can adequately explain how beautiful it was. The point of this for the Thai Buddhists is to send your bad memories from that year up with the lantern, along with making a wish for the year to come. When you keep that in mind and then watch thousands of lanterns go up into the sky at once, it definitely brings tears to your eyes!!!