(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Saturday Morning Garden Blogging - Vol. 19.14 (or 4/8/23)- Chiang Mai, Thailand Flower Festival 2023 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-08 The festival was also previously unknown to his friend and guide, Chris, who who has lived in SE Asia in various countries as his visas have permitted. He goes from one to another when his visa runs out and cycles through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, though he has also traveled in the Indian subcontinent and South American countries. He speaks a few words of the local languages, which is good, in part because he also knows the local culture, how to barter prices at restaurants, rides, services and rooms. At least in Cambodia and Thailand, my English was good enough in the tourist areas where we were, so the locals spoke to me in English. Chris has been able to live in these countries because the cost of living is extremely low, especially in comparison to America. The rooms we were staying in were between $18 and $30 per night, with air conditioning and Wi-Fi, Meals usually cost a couple of dollars or so for a single dish. The dish isn’t as big as many of the meals in America, but many meals here either encourage over-eating, wasting food, or taking leftovers with you, which doesn’t work well when you’re traveling around or in Thailand’s very warm climate. The food is uniformly good to excellent, and if you want more food, for a dollar or two, you can easily add to your meal. Or just get something from a food cart on the next corner. The most expensive part of the trip is the flight to get there. At about 30 Baht to the dollar, you can see these aren’t expensive. Food stand at the park’s street market. You folks are here to see pictures of the flower festival. Most of you have probably seen a Rose Parade on TV at some time in your life. Lots of big floats, with the designs made entirely out of flowers. Been going on for over a century. Chiang Mai's parade has been going on since the 1970’s, so over 40 years. The parade consists of floats, pulled wagons, marching bands, various civic organizations marching to recorded music, some groups of dancers, some antique cars and Tuk-tuks. All are decorated, and with few exceptions, the decorations are flowers, parts of flowers, organic components, like bamboo and coconut husks, and just like in the Rose Parade, I was absolutely amazed that they were able to get all the flowers at the peak of blooming all to take that hour-long trip down the parade route and wind up at the park. The floats are parked next to the park so that people can come and look at them, and it didn’t seem like there was anyone minding people touching the floats as they crowded around taking pictures. Many of my pictures of the parade were taken as videos. I have them posted on a Google drive with open view access at drive.google.com/… If you are interested, you can go up the folder level in the drive and see pictures of Chaing mai which include various temples and the Queen’s botanical garden, and pictures of Bangkok. If you go still higher, you have the opportunity to see pictures I took of Cambodia, which includes Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat’s temple district can be found just outside. Float in the parade. It is very easy to get close to the floats. A very tall float maneuvering around a traffic light. I did see one float get its top knocked sideways when it hit the light. As you can see, there were people within arms reach of the float. Marchers who had music accompanying them. Another small group. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to read the signs proceeding each group, so I just got to watch and enjoy. Late that afternoon and into the evening, we walked over to see the area where the floats were on display. The variety of flowers was incredible. No, I’ve never been to an actual Rose Parade, and it has about 75 years and lots of money on this parade, but these were truly spectacular. No guards in sight; everybody was calm and non-destructive. Incredible artistry on some of these floats. Did I hear someone say to their screen that there was no way these are made out of flowers? I’m not sure just what the rules are, but I believe most of these are their natural colors. I took photos to show you the wide variety of flowers and materials used. There were several floats with drawings on them. I believe at least the background was made of seeds, with the objects either painted on or even added on with different colored seeds. This scene was about five or six feet tall. There is an incredible level of skill to do all of this and still keep the flowers in this fresh condition when the temperature was close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Some sort of fruit sliced thinly and stained? Maybe coconut husks as well? Nuts? Fruit? Elephants are the national animal of Thailand. Rabbits were also popular because the Chinese Year of the Rabbit had just begun A peacock with a woven tail, I think. And one with a tail made from the real material. In addition to all of the beautiful floats, there were plants for display (and some for sale) that took far longer than the floats to create. Can you imagine how long they’ve been growing these bonsai trees? I think some of these were for sale. I didn’t look, because I might be able to afford one and I know the US doesn’t want any plant material brought back. Tunnel of love. And sneezes? Yes, the park was crowded, but you could still enjoy the scenes after dark. The wings were there for anyone to take a photo to see if they fit. I hope you have enjoyed this selection of photos. I was tremendously impressed with nearly all of the sights and experiences of Cambodia and Thailand and I plan to go back soon and experience them in a different season. If you have any questions, you’re welcome to put them down below and I’ll try my best to answer them. There is also a lot of information online or in guide books. Speaking of online, I’ll give you the link again if you could like to see many more pictures of the festival, Thailand and Cambodia. Also some photos of my traveling companions and notable locals. 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