One of the biggest festivals during the year in Chiang Mai is "Loi Kratong" or Festival of Lights. In Chiang Mai northern Thai dialect it is called "Yee Peng." Celebrants
launch a small raft (kratong) decorated with flowers, candles and joss sticks into a flowing body of water and make a wish. The chances that your wish will be realized
are enhanced by putting hair and nail clippings on your kratong.
One of the other things the festival is famous for is the launching of massive numbers of "kom loi" or paper balloons. With literally thousands of these balloons
floating in the night sky, it is a truly impressive site. However, I wouldn't suggest flying to Chiang Mai at night during the festival. The potential for disaster
is there.
Several years ago, I read an article in The Bangkok Post describing how difficult it is for the disabled to find jobs in Thailand mainly
because of the difficulty in getting to the work location. Since we deliver the materials to the producers home, I remember thinking that this was a chance for us to
help people without many other alternatives. However, nobody seemed to know how to locate them so I didn't make much progress.
Then one of my next door neighbors was in a serious motorcycle accident and severely injured his legs. A year and a half later, he still needs to use a walker and is unable to
work a regular job. Around the same time, his daughter gave birth to special needs boy and her husband headed for the hills. So now they work for us and are known in the
office as the "Nongkwai Group" after the area where they live. You can see them working on bags for our customer LunAroma, an Italian maker
of handmade soap.
When most people think of Thailand, they think of sand, surf and sun. However, Chiang Mai is 700 km north of Bangkok and much farther from the famous beaches such as Phuket
and Krabi. Add in being 300 meters above sea level and we have very cool, pleasant "winters" here. Doi Inthanon which is the highest mountain in Thailand and only
90 km from our office attracts tourists (mostly Thais) who go early in the morning to look at the frost.
These pictures were taken recently early in the morning. It was about 15°C when these photos were taken and I'm sure that many of you in Europe and North America
would have welcomed such "warmth" this winter but the Thais think this is really cold and bundle up. Most homes in Chiang Mai have no heat inside and a few people
do die from exposure every year.
Luckily, the days are warm-around 25°C but the humidity is still low. This is an excellant time for outdoor activities that during other times of the year it
is either just too hot or too wet (or both) to do.
However, there is also almost no rain-from November until the beginning on May. While in the early part of the season, this is very pleasant, as times goes on,
the dust, smoke and diesel fumes keep building up until there is a thick haze most days. This is made worse by the fact that Chiang Mai is in a bowl
surrounded by mountains so there is no place for the fumes to go.
The cooler weather and shorter days also some autumn colors and falling leaves. While it is certainly not Kyoto or New Hampshire, it does provide a change in scenery.
While some tree hardly change at all, others go completely bare. However, these are the trees that are now full of bright, colorful flowers even though they
do not have any leaves.
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It seems that my wife doesn't care much for the
saa trees in our garden and she keeps cutting them
back. In May, she cut off almost all the branches
but as you can see from these photos, they soon grew
back. |
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May |
June |
July |
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Safety First
Among the many things we had to do (and are still doing!) when we moved, was to put in 3-phase electricity for our paper calendering machine. Someone eventually showed up to do the connection from the power lines and as you can see, he showed the typical Chiang Mai "mai pen rai" attitude towards safety. Plastic sandals with homemade iron crampons to climb the pole; no rubber gloves; sitting directly on the wires carrying who knows how many volts with a variety of metal tools hanging off his belt and, of course, no safety harness. Well, at least it wasn't raining. |
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19 February 2010
We have added Tri-Fold Cards in 2 sizes to our wide selection of greeting cards. Please click here to see these new cards.
15 February 2010
We have added 3 new Floral papers to our range. Please click here to see these new paper patterns.
10 December 2009
We have added 10 more Layered Die-Cut cards with a miscellaneous holidays theme. Please click here for more details.
4 November 2009
We have added 2 Polygonal Boxes. Please click here for more details.
17 September 2009
We have added a set of 10 Layered Diecut cards in 148x105 mm size. Please click here
for more details.
28 August 2009
We have added a set of 10 Tea Bag Fold cards available in both 148 x 105 mm and 140 x 140 mm sizes. Please click here
for more details.
24 February 2009
We are introducing a set of 3 sizes of folding lid boxes. Please click here to find out more about this box.
21 January 2009
We have added a new necklace box to our range of jewelry boxes. Please click here to find out more about this new box.
We have added a new choker box to our range of jewelry boxes. Please click here to find out more about this new box.
19 January 2009
We have added 2 sizes of a new Pyramid Jewelry Box to our range of jewelry boxes. Please click here to find out more about these new boxes.
17 October 2008
We have added a set of 3 wedge shaped flat fold boxes. Please click here to find out more about these new boxes.
14 October 2008
We have added a new set of 3 Flat Fold Basket Boxes. Please click here to find out more about these new boxes.
15 September 2008
We have added a new card design based on a technique called "quilling."
Click here to see all of these new cards.
Grassroots HQ Co., Ltd., 43 Moo 3, Tambon Makamluang, Amphur San Patong, Chiang Mai 50120 Thailand
TEL: +66-53-311996-7 FAX: +66-53-311179