No need to ride half-way across Thailand; Chiang Mai has its very own Rocket Festival right on the backdoor step. Held over 3 days early in July each year you need only travel some 20kms along R1317 out past San Kamphaeng towards Mae On before heading into the mountains on your right.....just follow the crowd, you'll easily find it.
I've been to this event in the last two years & have yet to see another 'farang' there. It has a wonderful local feel; anything but driven for the tourist market.
2010
I headed out in the afternoon of day 3 of the festival, Sunday, to the mountains east of Chiang Mai - absolutely beautiful ride out through the rice fields & buffalo, an abundance of wonderful teak houses & spectacular mountain scenery. In the hills behind San Kamphaeng overlooking a large reservoir locals gathered amidst much fun & laughter, much music & merriment, much food & drink to launch rockets to please the gods so as to ensure good rains for the season ahead.
A massive launching platform some 25m high with a long access ramp had been built from bamboo:
Rockets were waiting, stored & being fine-tuned in areas under the surrounding trees - its a wonderful sight to see these creations suspended from the trees, draped in flowers & the cloth of monks, their support team, monks & all, seated thereunder:
There's a competition to judge the firings; a competition which assesses the trajectory of each firing. Prizes await the winners:
Also present are the offerings to the fish of the lake & money 'trees' for the temple:
Rockets are standardised for fairness being constructed using a bamboo pipe about 1.5m long & around 12cm in diameter filled with gunpowder & firmly attached to a long bamboo shoot to give an overall length approximating 20m:
There's a scoreboard - a firing which fails to ignite or launch scores '0', those that explode on take-off 50, but the vast majority are assessed on how high & how straight they fly:
I had mistakenly thought that these monks were taking bets - a pragmatic way to ensure fairness - but on reflection feel they were taking entry fees & issuing firing numbers:
Five or six men surrounded by monks & teams of chanting musicians carry the rockets one by one to the launching pad. The rockets are carried up the launching pad & put in place. One fellow remains with a 2m pole to light the rocket which he does from a well protected area atop the launching pad - one wonders about their hearing though as the rockets sound like fighter jets on take-off:
The idea is that the remains of the rockets fall into the dam area below. Its quite dangerous - ie, great fun - the crowd gathers quite near-by & we saw several rockets blow up literally straight off the launching pad, straight over-head. Two years ago one such explosion caused a piece of bamboo to be embedded in a spectator's head. At times the rockets fly off in completely the wrong direction, much to the amusement of those present, flying straight over-head for the hills & not the dam!
Its a good day out (as is the 'party-mode' night that follows) & can you believe it - this morning, the day after the firings, the Thailand Meteological Department has issued a warning for heavy rain, even flooding over the next 4 days for most of Thailand!
(To be continued............................)
I've been to this event in the last two years & have yet to see another 'farang' there. It has a wonderful local feel; anything but driven for the tourist market.
2010
I headed out in the afternoon of day 3 of the festival, Sunday, to the mountains east of Chiang Mai - absolutely beautiful ride out through the rice fields & buffalo, an abundance of wonderful teak houses & spectacular mountain scenery. In the hills behind San Kamphaeng overlooking a large reservoir locals gathered amidst much fun & laughter, much music & merriment, much food & drink to launch rockets to please the gods so as to ensure good rains for the season ahead.
A massive launching platform some 25m high with a long access ramp had been built from bamboo:
Rockets were waiting, stored & being fine-tuned in areas under the surrounding trees - its a wonderful sight to see these creations suspended from the trees, draped in flowers & the cloth of monks, their support team, monks & all, seated thereunder:
There's a competition to judge the firings; a competition which assesses the trajectory of each firing. Prizes await the winners:
Also present are the offerings to the fish of the lake & money 'trees' for the temple:
Rockets are standardised for fairness being constructed using a bamboo pipe about 1.5m long & around 12cm in diameter filled with gunpowder & firmly attached to a long bamboo shoot to give an overall length approximating 20m:
There's a scoreboard - a firing which fails to ignite or launch scores '0', those that explode on take-off 50, but the vast majority are assessed on how high & how straight they fly:
I had mistakenly thought that these monks were taking bets - a pragmatic way to ensure fairness - but on reflection feel they were taking entry fees & issuing firing numbers:
Five or six men surrounded by monks & teams of chanting musicians carry the rockets one by one to the launching pad. The rockets are carried up the launching pad & put in place. One fellow remains with a 2m pole to light the rocket which he does from a well protected area atop the launching pad - one wonders about their hearing though as the rockets sound like fighter jets on take-off:
The idea is that the remains of the rockets fall into the dam area below. Its quite dangerous - ie, great fun - the crowd gathers quite near-by & we saw several rockets blow up literally straight off the launching pad, straight over-head. Two years ago one such explosion caused a piece of bamboo to be embedded in a spectator's head. At times the rockets fly off in completely the wrong direction, much to the amusement of those present, flying straight over-head for the hills & not the dam!
Its a good day out (as is the 'party-mode' night that follows) & can you believe it - this morning, the day after the firings, the Thailand Meteological Department has issued a warning for heavy rain, even flooding over the next 4 days for most of Thailand!
(To be continued............................)
