Alms-giving to 12,999 Monks at Sunrise

It's the last Sunday of December 2012 and I'm hurrying out of my dark apartment at quarter to four in the morning. I'm wearing whatever I hustled out the wardrobe in my bleary-eyed state and hopping on the back of a certain hoodrat motorbike.

We're off to give a mass of strangers anything that can last, from candles to toothpaste, packs of Mama's noodles, bags of rice, sachets of over-sweetened coffee mixes, to boxes of milk drinks aimed at kindergarten kids. And by mass I mean 12,999 of them, according to the posters in Thai around town. And by strangers, I mean monks, from all over Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas, who return to their own temples after the ceremony.

Once we'd taken our cross-legged positions on the massive red and white banner which lined the entire length of this usually busy road, we began to wait. We had been in Chiang Mai about four months at that time, and we were already used to drifting off while the background static of monotonous Thai failed to snatch us back into reality. We almost regretted arriving so early, because we had no idea what was being said or chanted for almost 3 hours, and it was only when the sky became light that the monks slowly started floating in.

And then it was all worth it, because they floated in one by one, orange figure trailing behind another orange figure, until there were thousands. Up and down the entire road, monks ambled on in a silent tiptoe. It was a spectacular sight, and a moving ceremony to be a part of - you could almost say it was one of those many moments I realised I was in love with the world, and I was addicted to exploring it.

Here are my photos of the ceremony:

Military cadets keeping the road warm for the monks.

A shot of when we arrived - dark, exciting, and not too many people.

Still yawning, stretching, and waiting.

People praying while the moon is still out.

The monks arriving.

The first of the monks.

Here they are!

Hello there.