The morning was spent eating a bit of breakfast in the café which is attached to the hostel while watching the King’s birthday parade on tv. It was happening just round the corner from where I am staying though there was no point of actually going out and seeing it myself, as all that happened were loads of people crowd the streets and the king drives by in a minivan to the grand palace where entry is restricted and they have a big ceremony. It was cool to see on tv and it reminded me of something that goes on in Britain relating to our Queen. Made a decision to go to Chiang Mai tomorrow so walked to the train station and bought my ticket. Originally I wanted to take the day train as I read it was loads cheaper and I wouldn’t mind a bit of window gazing, though when I got there the day seat was almost the same price as the sleeper train so went for the latter option. Walked back and chilled out at the hostel escaping the sweltering heat, then late afternoon walked down to the other hostel to meet up with Karen, Mark, Aleen and Bryce, went out for some dinner then walked over to see the festival thing they had going. The roads were closed and there were hundreds of thousands of people, thousands of Chinese lanterns were going up, massive spotlights and lasers were roaming the skies and they had a big stage in a park with different acts going on. They had banned drinking on the streets and I didn’t see any alcohol whatsoever, everyone was in a chilled out mood and walking about or chilling on the grass. It was a great evening, really enjoyed it. Unfortunately there wasn’t any massive fireworks that I was hoping for, there were a couple that went off that were cool though not in any real quantity. Oh, when we were eating dinner the owners of the restaurant and everyone else in the street came out with a candle and sang a song for the King, it wasn’t happy birthday though was very strange, they do love their king over here (it’s an criminal offence to criticize him) and they have the national anthem before every movie at the cinema!
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