I went to the Chiang Rai bus station to get a ride out to Singha Park where they were holding the last day of the International Valentine’s Ballon Festival. The minibusses were not yet running so I hired a minibus for 150 Baht to take me out there—about 25 km from downtown.
Once at Singha Park—this is the Singha Company Logo, a dragon lion—they had free shuttles running from the numerous car parks out to the Festival site so I took one. There was a huge stage and many chairs set out for the music venue and all around the perimeter they had various vendors—mostly selling food.
On the far side of this music stage, they had set up all of the balloon baskets under the shade of various tents. It looks like they have about 33 balloons at this festival. Some of the balloons were in the shapes of planet earth, jack-o-lantern, heart-shaped, bulldog, flying fish, Singha beer logo, moose, a tree trunk, and some Asian cartoon characters.
They have a tethered balloon I could ride for 250 Baht, but I enjoyed just watching all of the different balloons getting filled up.
There was a Hilltribe venue that featured many of the ethnic tribes and many of the people there were wearing their traditional garb. One of the contests they had was a tug of war contest for the women who were wearing their various traditional garb. Looked like they were having lots of fun.
There was a Hilltribe venue that featured many of the ethnic tribes and many of the people there were wearing their traditional garb. One of the contests they had was a tug of war contest for the women who were wearing their various traditional garb. Looked like they were having lots of fun.
They start filling up the balloons around 4:30 pm all around the small lake with the targets on a floating dock.
One of the contests they have is to do a marker dropping contest where they try to drop a marked weight into a hula hoop scattered on the ground. It looks like Jitterbug is ahead at 220 points.
The balloons stayed at a low altitude while circling the small lake.
Although they had a night show, I decided to leave by taking the local bus for just 60 Baht.
While I was waiting for it to leave, one of the balloons got off course much to the embarrassment of the pilot. He hit the top of the tree and fortunately missed the power lines. He got out of the tree by blasting a lot of propane and once free dropped down to the ground and deflated his balloon. He probably got the worst pilot award for that action.
As the bus made its way back to the Chiang Rai bus station the road to the Singha park was jammed. So glad I decided to forgo watching the night balloon show.
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