Photos

New Years eve on Ao Nang beach near Krabi. I'm blown away by these large lanterns that float through the night sky. Made from paper and bamboo, with a waxy fuel ring; when these are lit, the hot air fills the paper canopy and then the lantern majesticallly lifts off up in to the sky. They drift up and out to sea (assuming the wind is blowing that way), and rise up really high and off to the point where you can't see them anymore. Seeing one is amazing, seeing a whole load of them floating through the air is just surreal.

I'm told that they are Khoom Loi. Given the season, it isn't unrealistic to imagine that a lot of people here were remembering loved ones lost in the great tsunami a few years back.

The two in the picture are just about ready to launch, you can see that they are both floating with just the slightest touch required to keep them stable.