They have me working pretty hard at this convention. I have given three talks each day and have done several individual meetings with different educators. As a result, there hasn’t been a lot of time to see the sights. However, the hotel has a really nice view:
We went to a restaurant last night that is on the river that goes through the town in which the conference is held. It was very pretty, and because it is so warm here, we ate outside:
The restaurant did something very interesting. They brought a lantern that was covered by a thin fabric down to the river and lit the lantern:
As the lantern warmed the air in the fabric, it become like a hot-air balloon. Eventually, they released it, and it floated out over the river:
It then rose high into the air:
This is based on a Buddhist ritual in which the believer casts his or her bad luck, bad feelings, hurts, and stresses onto the lantern. As the lantern rises, those bad things are carried away from the believer. Nearly 95% of Thailand’s population is Buddhist, so most of what you see in Thailand has been influenced by Buddhism.