More bang for your buck ...

Bang! Bang! Bang! I didn't sleep a wink last night ...

As you might know, everything is celebrated longer and harder and louder in northern Thailand.

And this weekend is the Loy Krathong festival throughout the Kingdom. So of course that means at least one whole week's celebration in Chiang Mai. Fireworks, rockets, bungers, and anything that catches fire -- or could catch fire if sufficiently primed -- or makes a noise is wheeled into action. At any hour of night or day.

And of course the clear night skies are already filled with glowing lanterns trailing showering tails of sparking and fizzing fireworks into the stratosphere. Bloody magical!

I've just seen my neighbour's stockpile of fireworks in his garage: it's a collection of size and potency that would interest the Taliban, jing jing! (The photo adjacent is just a little warm-up one he tested in the garden recently, a fraction of the size of some of the ones he has under wraps.)


Luckily I'm heading down to Sukhothai to watch the peaceful release of about 5000 lanterns into the sky against the spectacularly lit backdrop of the ruins of the ancient capital.

But I'm sure Chiang Mai will be still be celebrating long and loud once I'm back ...