Things are 
happening in the city known as the Rose of the North. Around this time every year a spectacular celebration is held, which is known as the Flower Festival.
The place for the exhibition and for the parade was around the southwestern corner of the Old City, on the inner side of the city moat. That place is actually quite close to where I live at, easily accessible by rollerblades. I went there on the 2nd, to watch as people set up the stalls and prepared the exhibition. Some of these elaborate stages were quite labor intensive, and required fountains, sand, gravel etc. to be carried to the place.
On the beginning day, I went there with my friends in the afternoon. It was nothing short of spectacular. There were literally thousands of plants, accessories and, of course, all kinds of food.
There were many different species of orchids, a large variety of cactus plants jasmine and a whole lots of other colorful flowers.
My favorite part
of was the bonsai exhibition. I just love those miniature trees that are turned into wonderful art composition under the skillful hands of a bonsai master. And these trees were some of the nicest I’ve ever seen. I went around and took pictures of just about every bonsai there was.
There was a bonsai competition; first, second and third place awarded in many categories (on the pictures you can see them in Thai numerals.) Sometimes I didn’t agree with the decision of the judges, but I guess that’s natural.
I also have a small Bonsai tree that I take care of every day. I got it as a parting gift from my sister before I left Samut Prakan. Seeing these wonderful works of art on the festival gave me new inspiration. I got some more supplies for my own tree. It looks much nicer now, but not nearly as spectcular as the ones on the exhibition.
The second day of the festival was dominated by the parade. Beautiful floats made of millions of small flowers, equally beautiful queens sitting on top of each float; marching bands, dancers, musicisans competed this spectacular parade. I took lots of pictures of this too.
There was plenty of food for the masses to eat: not only from the multitude of stalls that were set up from end-to end, but also from the nearby park, where people rented mats to eat their meals on the ground, the traditional way. The park was also the scene for traditional Thai music and dances throughout the day.
Speaking of food, 
I spotted an unusually large kind of fried insect called áÁ§´Ò (meng-daa). This large, cockroach-like insect is notorious for its stink. Incidentally, pimps are also referred to by this name. 🙂
Like I said, I have tons of pictures, and I wish I could share them with you all. I plan a website to store and display my pictures and other files. It should have been completed by now, but my laptop is broken. I will have to start from scratch. Until then, I keep a few pics in Yahoo.
http://photos.yahoo.com/siamjai
Early next week I will leave again to do yet another one of those wonderful visa runs. I hope to see you again maybe around this weekend. 🙂
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