Where the money goes
It is my girlfriend's birthday on Sunday. She has no days off from work, and she works graveyard on weekends. Her request for the weekend off was denied, and the hardest part to swallow was that she was not asking for a party — she just wanted to rest with her days off and not plan anything.
It has been her dream to go to Chiang Mai and experience Loy Krathong, the lantern festival, so I bought a pack of lanterns to have a mini festival of our own at home. All this to say: I would love to surprise her this weekend, because she honestly deserves the world and then some.
Every claim on this site is a listing on a calendar day. That is what you buy, and the rules do not change because of this page. This page says what the money is used for.
- $1,000 flights
- $1,800 lantern tickets
- $2,500 five nights
- $3,800 iPhone Pro
— of $3,800 covered
The plan
- Two round trips to Chiang Mai, festival week: about $400 each. $800.
- Two tickets to the CAD Yi Peng lantern release, November 24 or 25: 4,900 to 15,900 baht each; the middle tier is about $200 each. $400.
- Five nights near the old city, festival week: about $120 a night. $600.
- Krathong, food, songthaews, and the things she points at: $700.
- $2,500 for the trip. Prices checked August 30, 2026: Skyscanner and FareCompare for flights; yipengchiangmailanternfestival.com for tickets; Agoda for hotels.
- One more thing: her iPhone 13 is at 68% battery health. A new phone for her. $1,300.
- $3,800 total.
Milestones
- $1,000: flights booked.
- $1,800: lantern tickets bought.
- $2,500: hotel paid.
- $3,800: the phone. Everything above this keeps the site running — Vercel, Convex, Resend, DataFast, the domain — and my indie developer journey alive.
On November 25 the photo goes here.