03.02 Day 19 Chiang Mai
Day 19 - Sat 3rd Feb - Chiang Mai
I visit the same market as yesterday for some fresh breakfast goods - in the narrow alleyways its the mopeds racing hither and dither that are the biggest threat to personal safety, combined with the flurrying fleet of minivans doing their early morning pick ups of tourists heading on day trips to mountain treks, ziplining, cooking classes or elephant sanctuaries.
The Flower Festival - the main reason for us being here on these dates kicked off last night in a park 5 mins walk from Hostel One Art and Gallery and I’d peaked at it last night to get a sense of it. This morning though is one of the highlights - a parade along the south side of the Old Town.
We walk to the park to view the flowers, which are an amazing colourful array of different flowers in especially ornate flower beds. Further there are temporary gazebos and stands with a gentle mist spraying to keep the many orchids moist. Vertical gardens add further colour.
In anticipation of the parade we walked out one of the gates to the road running parallel to the canal where tourists and locals alike started lining the street. We find shade outside what transpires to be a trophy shop - Seb assumes they must be really good at sport to have won all these.
Soon enough the parade arrives at a slow trundling pace and we watch clap and wave at the marching bands, people in historical dress - some walking, some sitting in bicycle rickshaws, and then oversized floats balanced on top of a car or ute. They’re not dissimilar to Mardi Gras parade floats but with many, many more flowers.
Some floats are representations of Chiang Mai with elephant heads and temples, all adorned with flowers, whilst others sponsored / advertising such as the International School. On top of the floats are several people wearing clothes with flowers woven in. It all creates quite the spectacles, no wonder it’s in its 47th year.
As it approaches midday we revert back to the aircon in our hostel with a couple of mango smoothies to quench our thirst. After some down time, we received an invite to use Emmett and Hazel’s pool which we gladly accepted. On the 15 minute walk over we grab lunch at Phithi, another of these cafes at the front of someone’s house. Where many are hosted by elderly ladies, this one is a young couple and their prep of the food with exacting precision results in one of Kate’s favourite meals, a clean pork noodle soup. She even adds a 5 star review to google before we leave. Another <200 baht meal ($9) for four. In fact when we glance at menus of 100 baht for a main ($5) we consider that expensive.
On arrival at our friend's hotel we’re soon in the cold pool that sits almost on the road. After a while the kids are making pancakes in an imaginary cafe and Kate and I get taught Euchre, a Bridge - esque card game over a couple of Chang and Singha beers in the eating spot surrounded by greenery. Danny and I get hammered 10-0 by the girls which Kim modestly puts down to good cards but really I think I was the weakest link.
As our hostel is en route to the Flower Festival we stop off there to play President, another card game, kids and adults combined, a game that came back to me as being played on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro 7 years ago. After getting bored, Seb learned (hopefully) how sharp the pen-knife is, slicing his thumb though withholding any emotion until he’s away from our guests' before tears appear in our room. Nothing Savlon and a plaster can’t fix though.
We all 8 walk to the park and everyone is oh-ing and ah-ing as we do a lap - the Vivid (Sydney reference) lights complementing the bright array of flowers.
At 7pm there is a waterworks display on the canal as crowds line the edge, lit up by spotlights the water is sprayed roughly to a couple of tunes. Our only mistake is being next to some speakers. When Danny, who is and owns a DJ business in Toronto is telling to his kids to cover their ears as well as doing it himself, we think we should follow suit.
Dinner is grabbed from the food stalls brought in for the event before strolling more around the park admiring the impressive light installations. Thankfully it’s only a 5 minute walk home for our tired team.
