International ballon festival 4-5 March

[sappersrest]

International ballon festival 4-5 March to be held at Payap University

Just a heads up for this fabulous day out, best time is in the evening.

Full program on the website, Free transport from town

http://www.thailandballoonfestival.com/tibf2016/index.php/en/

[MESmith]

There were quite a few in the air this morning, south of Promenada. They picked a bad time to have it, in the smog season!

[NancyL]

The idea with having it this weekend was to extend the tourist season. Actually the weather has been fairly cool this year for early March. In the early evening, the balloons are tethered for a "Night Glow" a wide selection of vendors offering food, including many of the five star hotels with affordable small plates and excellent musical entertainment.

[sappersrest]

Very good evening out, really enjoyed it , the food offerings were very good .Le Meridian hotel even had their executive chef supervising.Balloons were great ,good to see plenty of G reg balloons making the effort to attend. Along way from blighty,well done.

[NancyL]

Really need to get some photos posted. It certainly was a very good first day and it goes on tomorrow. A launch at dawn and then things are fairly quiet during the day -- oh they have kids activities, food, displays and so forth, but no hot air balloons. All the pilots and crews take a long nap during the day and come back around 4 pm to set up for the dusk "evening glow".

Chiang Mai International Rotary Club's 2nd Annual "Golf Ball Drop" will happen tomorrow around 5 pm (or maybe later if it's too hot) and we were out there today selling tickets for numbered golf balls. It was interesting how many balloon pilots and crew came by to talk with us because they want to promote similar charity golf ball drops at other balloon festivals. Who knew we'd become a "model" charity event? Wow! It was great to talk with so many pilots and crew from around the world.

Anyway, the way the golf ball drop works is that people buy a ticket with a number that coresponds to a number on a golf ball. All the numbered golf balls are put into buckets and with the slimmest Rotary Club member who will go up around 20 meters tomorrow in a tethered hot air balloon and she'll drop all the balls over a target in the field. The person who bought the ticket number for the ball closest to the target will win 30,0000 baht, second closest 10,000 baht and third closest 5,000 baht. All funds after expenses will go to the Rotary club's service projects such as the Children's Eye Clinics, various projects at Mae Tao Clinics, Children's Water Safety Programs, water treatment projects at schools, etc.

Rotary club will sell the tickets tomorrow just outside the main gate to the Balloon Festival http://www.thailandballoonfestival.com/tibf2016/index.php/en/ up until 4 pm. After that, I'm sorry, but we have to cease sales in order to have time to number all the last-minute balls and to load the ballls into the gondola.

It's a very impressive sight to see the balls dropped out of the hot air balloon. Here's the video from last year, when the Balloon Festival was at a different venue and the CM International Rotary Club was still very new:

[NancyL]

I see that I posted this just after midnight last night. The Rotary Golf Ball Drop is TODAY at the Balloon Festival and TODAY is the last day for the festival. So, hurry and come out later this afternoon.

[jko]

Went there on Friday evening and would like to congratulate the organisers and the pilots - this is really a superb annual event. It should be promoted overseas as part of Chiang Mai's festivals but I doubt if it was. If any tourists were there, I did not see them - mostly Thais and resident expats enjoying a great night out.

Public toilets inside the venue however were disused and filthy. When I discovered this and asked one of the exhibitors where to go, he suggested I use the bushes. I chose anyway to use the 'official' toilets adjacent to the festival. These were dimly lit, dirty and grubby. No soap, no paper towels.

Since this was an opportunity to showcase the campus to the thousands who attended the festival, it is surprising that Payap University management did not apparently make an effort to provide clean facilities in keeping with their status.

[thaiscot]

I went on friday night , really enjoyed it ,if i was honest the venue needs signs you drive in but nothing telling you how to get to the carpark in fact nothing telling you if you are in the right place at all i took a wrong turn trying to get out aswell so need some signs but the food was good & ballons and things some thing different

[sappersrest]

Went on Friday night really good entertainment and enjoyed the gourmet burgers and crepes from Le Meridian.

A good tun out of balloons especially from the UK contingent of pilots Really good night out so much so we decided to go again on Sat night as well , again great entertainment especially the band 2 nights with Steve.Good turnout of balloons. However there was no alcohol sales by the big hotels, slightly spoilt our aim of going again as we were looking forward to sipping cocktails and watching the ballons.

Compared with Friday night, the big chain hotels must have lost out big time because of this.