What a fantastic way to welcome the new year by sending thousands of pretty lanterns to the Almighty and sneaking in some demands while you alure HIM. Chinese and Taiwanese people are pleasantly sneaky in getting their demands fulfilled.
We were groups of 6 curious visitors who boarded a train to Pinxi from the Taipei Main Station along with thousands of other folks from all parts of the Taiwan on the 15th day after Chinese New Year. We were amazed and taken aback by a surprise because the excitement and enthusiasm of people around us had not dampened even a little bit despite of constant pushing and pressing of human bodies that were being marinated by body odor and breath of fellow passengers.
We made it to our destination in about 1.5 hours, we were already running out of patience and really hoping that this better be really good. We poured ourselves on to the train platform and contributed to the flood of people. People waited for the train to pass and jumped onto the tracks from all sides just like the river would flood into every open space. In less than a minute platform and track was full of people and I could not differentiate tracks from the platform anymore and colourful lights from lanterns beautifully dotted the sides.
We walked or let me say we got pushed by people in the direction of the spot with best views of sky lanterns and fire cracker show that was organized by the governement every 30 minutes. We held each other tight so that we don't loose each other, we all had phones but how do you explain where you were to your friend when you are lost? Maybe I can say that "hey, I am right outside the lantern shop by the platform? Where are you?" But there were 100s of lantern shops on each side of the platform, where will my poor friend find me. We finally could feel our legs and managed our pace when we got to a spot where the platform ended and the open space began. People spread themselves a bit and we were jsut in time for the fireworks show. We stood at a good spot and enjoyed the sparkles in the sky. But only when the fumes from the fireworks cleared we noticed something so spectacular. Up in the sky we saw thousands of sky lanterns dangling and floating in the sky. I was spellbound. Some of the lanterns grouped up and formed beautiful abstract patterns, while others were scattered alone and covering entire length of the sky. It was as if stars had decided to come closer to Earth today so we can enjoy its warmth and beauty! It This site was mesmerizing and totally worth the long painful travel from Taipei.
I could not wait to paint my own lantern, write all my wishes and send it up in the sky. All of us bought our own lantern and we borrowed Chinese paint brush and an ink pot to write our wishes. We had to buy lantern of specific color for specific wishes. Honestly, I am greedy, I want it all - Money, family, power, peace etc. So I bought a multicolored lantern, scribbled all my wishes with my dear hubby, we lit the candle at the bottom of the lantern and held it for few seconds while the heat from the candle filled its belly before we let it go in the sky. We stared at it in some trance or momentary sincerity to see our wishes fulfilled. We saw it go up and high until we could not distinguish it from thousands of other lanterns. We smiled and hugged, it was a beautiful feeling.
We walked up and down the tracks, tried local delicacies like grilled corn, glazed strawberries and special sweet New Year pastries. When we were tired we looked back at the platform and a train at distance that was leaving the platform and wondered how in the hell are we going to make it in those trains and make it back home!
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