← All articles · Thailand · 10 November 2019

Chiang Mai, Thailand: A city hanging lanterns on every wire it owns

Chiang Mai in November 2019: Lanna lanterns going up across the old city, gilded temples at dusk, a strawberry stall and one very cheerful novice monk.

We arrived in Chiang Mai in November 2019 and walked straight into a city mid-decoration. Lanterns were going up on every wire, gate and temple wall in the old town, in that specific Lanna shape with the long paper tails, and for three days we mostly just followed them around.

Lanterns, everywhere, all at once

Inga in an orange t-shirt standing among rows of tall yellow paper Lanna lanterns with cut-paper tails, in front of a printed backdrop reading Chiang Mai — A wall of yellow Lanna lanterns waiting to be hung, and Inga colour-coordinated entirely by accident.

Dileep in a hat and white polo shirt standing under an arched walkway hung with hundreds of small multicoloured paper lanterns and cut-paper streamers — An entire street turned into a tunnel of paper. There was a taxi at the far end, still doing its job as if none of this were unusual.

Close-up of white paper Lanna lanterns lit from within, each printed with a gold flower motif and hung with long cut-paper tails, receding into darkness under a wooden roof — The plain white ones are the ones that get you. Gold flower on each panel, and a tail that moves in the smallest draught.

A grid of coloured paper lanterns strung on parallel wires against a black night sky, with the moon visible between them — Look up almost anywhere after dark and you get this, with the moon squeezing in on the right.

A glowing orange paper lantern hanging beside the stepped brick and plaster base of a temple chedi at night, with a line of small coloured lights along the path beyond — One lantern against a chedi that has been standing there considerably longer than the lantern.

The temples underneath it all

Chiang Mai has more temples than a person can sensibly visit, and in November they all get the same treatment.

Inga and Dileep standing in front of a heavily gilded temple building with carved gold pillars, a staircase and a golden chedi spire rising behind it against a deep blue dusk sky — Gold on gold on gold, and a chedi spire poking through the gap. This is roughly the moment we stopped counting temples.

Inga standing in front of a white and gold temple viharn with a painted Buddha above the red doors, two ornate yaksha guardian statues flanking the steps and a monk in orange robes walking inside — Two yaksha guardians on the door, lanterns strung down both sides, and a monk heading in without breaking stride.

A terracotta statue of a laughing novice monk in orange robes holding an alms bowl, standing beside the white plaster base of a chedi with iron garden chairs behind — Our favourite thing in Chiang Mai: a small clay novice, mid-laugh, entirely unbothered.

Fruit, coffee and the people selling it

Inga talking to a smiling market vendor in an apron across a stall stacked with punnets of strawberries, tamarind and papaya under hanging bulbs at a Chiang Mai night market — Northern Thailand grows strawberries, which nobody tells you before you get here. This stall had them by the crate.

Inga and a Thai cafe owner standing behind a small carved wooden juice and coffee cart stacked with coconuts, pineapple, bananas and dragon fruit, under a Thai address sign for Phra Pokklao Soi 1 — A carved wooden cart on Phra Pokklao Soi 1, doing coffee, smoothies and a fair amount of conversation.

Chiang Mai runs at about half the speed of the rest of the country, which after Bangkok was exactly the point. If you want the other end of Thailand, we've written up Pattaya and James Bond Island in the south, and a strange afternoon at the Myanmar border not far north of here.