Our visit to Chiang Mai just happened to coincide with the annual flower festival. For the festival, several streets are closed to traffic and filled with vendors selling all sorts of plants, flowers, and tasty snacks. Most exciting are the strawberries. In addition to being spring flower season, it is also the peak of strawberry season, and the strawberries from South Vietnam and North Thailand are considered some of the best in the world. We ate a lot of berries and took a lot of photos.
For dinner, the hostel owner took a large group of us to the Thai barbeque. There were so many of us that a few had to (chose to) ride on the roof and watch the city lights stream by. Every weekend, a building like an open-sided airplane hanger is equipped with table-top grills, platters of fresh food, and a live band. Literally thousands of Thais (and the few lucky foreigners who know about it) gather together to cook, eat, and talk. It's good fun.
Afterwards, we all went out for Karaoke. In Thailand, Japanese-style Karaoke is wildly popular. Rather than taking place in an open bar, groups of friends can rent out rooms of various sizes, each equipped with a karaoke machine. Everyone sings together, eliminating stage fright or performance anxiety. The drinks menu might also have something to do with this.Overall, it was a properly festive day, beginning to end.
1 comment:
If you ever make it to Oz and end up visiting Uluru, the backpackers lodge has a similar pavilion-type bbq restaurant that's DIY. They supply the food, you do the work. It was great fun and we met a nice couple from Melbourne.
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