Andiamo: 2/8–Flower Festival parade

Bright and early Saturday morning, we are up and out to go watch the Flower Festival parade. We have read where it starts at 8am and we want to make sure that we have a good place to watch it close to the reviewing stand near the Nawarat bridge. We head out around 7:30, it’s a 15 minute walk, and figure we’ll be good.

A block from the condo, we see a float that is sitting abandoned on the side of the road, the flowers are draped (to protect from the cold) and there are tents on either side of it. Is there something going on here? Or did it break down? We don’t really know what to make of it….

As we head farther up Chang Klan street, we notice there is still tons of traffic, which shouldn’t be if the parade is on. because the road should be closed. As we get closer to Tha Pae road, where the actual parade will be held, we can see there traffic is totally unrestricted. Hmmmm…..

We walk down the road to the reviewing stand, which is all set up and ready, but totally empty. There are chairs stacked along the side of the road and there is another abandoned float across the street. This is not looking good!

We back track to the TAT office which, to our dismay, is only open Mon-Fri. Well, darn! So, we wander through Warorot again, this time looking for the cooking utensil store to find a spatula (the new condo is a little less well equipped than the other two!). It’s so early – nothing is open but the food vendors (but as I said in the last post – we got to see everyone in action).

We turn around to head back to the condo, but first we spy a float in the lot at the U-Pakut Wat that people are still working on. So, being the tour director for the day, I go up and ask the guy gluing banana leaves onto the float what time the parade will start. He understands, but then concentrates on trying to get the English words out! He says 3pm, but holds up 4 fingers. I say 3PM and hold up 3 fingers? He says yes, and repeats 3PM with 4 fingers. Ok…..I’m thinking 4pm – but that’s just an educated guess! And then I ask – will your float be done by then? It’s not even halfway there! He smiles and says yes, shaking his head enthusiastically. Wow! We’re impressed.

Back at the condo, Yui is on duty, so I ask him is he knows about the parade. He confirms it is at 4pm, and there has been some confusion about starting in the morning or afternoon. Well, that’s solves that! So now we just have the rest of the morning/afternoon to hang out until 3pm, when we’ll head back to Tha Pae road.

3Pm, yeah, this is more like it! Barricades are up, people are walking, the grand stands are filling up and we snag a great curb behind the post box in the shade – because shade is essential! We’re also right next to a sausage vendor, so, when in Chiang Mai….we grab a sausage!

It’s pretty weird, we’re thinking pork and rice sausage because when you bite into it, it’s got sort of like rice noodles inside it. Good – just odd! We hang out for the better part of an hour, next to a sweet Thai family with Mama cleaning off the curb to sit down, and cleaning off my curb for me as well! Finally – at 4:40 (a little late) – the festivities begin!

When the confetti starts to fly announcing the start of the parade, all hopes of keeping out seats go out the window. Its a free for all. Everyone gets up and goes into the middle of the street! So we end up standing right there with them, jockeying for picture positions, running in front of floats to click away and keeping out of the float and marching band handlers way as they come through and politely move us all back out of the way of the parade participants.

Even though it is annoying, and of course we are NOT any where near as good as our Asian counterparts at getting in the front to take our picture (you’ll see what I mean below in the photos – especially the guy with the zebra hat that was in virtually all of the first photos!) – it was still very fun. The floats were amazing, the girls stunning and the flowers beautiful. We watch for about 3 hours, and finally abandon our post to head home for dinner as night falls. They are still not done yet, and the parade route is something like 3KM long, the last float won’t be at the festival marketplace until – oh – midnight the way they are going! Not to mention the girls – and their footwear! Unbelievable! Below is a selection of pix and comments:

Girls with the opening banner – notice the shoes! Remember 3km!