"Everybody's feeling warm and bright..."

Sawat dee! {That's "hello" in Thai}

I have about 20 blog posts worth of pictures and tales from my terrific trip to Thailand, but I'm going to trim it down to five. :)

Oliver, Liz and I went to three different places within the country: Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and the island Koh Samui. So I'll write a post about each place (We did so much in Chiang Mai that it will take two), and food will get it's very own blog post. Sound like a plan?

The whole reason we took a few vacation days off work to go to Thailand this time of year was to attend the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai. The festival is a time to release your worries or make a wish by sending off a floating lantern or one that drifts off into the sky. (Click here for a more detailed desciption of Loy Krathong.)

A few handmade "rafts" that people send down the river.

The festival was held during our first two nights of the trip. On the first night, we watched the festivities from a lovely dinner cruise...

From the boat, we saw all kinds of light displays and we heard all kinds of fireworks.

Here'a a video I took of the festival. The first part is from the boat ride, and the second part was taken the second night, just after we sent up our own lantern.

Other types of lanterns were strung up to add to the extremely festive atmosphere.

As I said in the video, the three of us each set off our own lantern...

...and it joined hundreds of other lights in the sky...

:)