Monday, February 7, 2011

The Real Chiang Mai Flower Festival

WARNING! This post has extreme graphic and floral content.
We hadn't even walked the walk to Nong Buak Hard Park to see part of the Chiang Mai Flower Festival, when I spotted these couple of beauties. I swear I'm going to disappear down one of those sidewalk pot holes one day...too busy looking up into treetops and through garden fences. And they would be called.....?

The festival was bustling, but not toooo busy. The floats were lined up on show, in all their minute detailed glory, with pant/flower displays and food stalls on either side.
Remember most of these floats have been coloured/decorated with teeny weeny individual flowers, rice and fabric embellishments.

Florafied naga serpents and yaksha warrior...and wabbits!
Some type of bulbous blossom, just before the orchids...
...then the orchids. Thailand is home to over 1,000 species which come in every colour of the rainbow. Here are just a few OK, heaps of my favourites.
Big and almost carnivorous in appearance
Weird and lovely.
Blooms looking more like droplets...a prize winner.
Very green.
Huge and...
...huger.
Nong Buak Hard Park was packed with families enjoying the festivities and enough food stalls to feed a large army.
The cacti
The bonsais were understandably roped off from the public. Some growing over rock, some wind swept and small forests of twisted and contorted trees.
Bonsai Bastard Teak Trees - The Flame of the Forest (Butea monosperma)
And one more for the road...on our way home.
Stray opted to sit this one out, in a near by café, not wanting to have his broken collar bone knocked in the crowds...well that's what he told me, anyway ;) Many thanks to Lani, who patiently kept me company throughout my clickety click expedition.

Snap's other blog Chiang Mai Thai

3 comments:

lanivcox said... Best Blogger Tips

are you kidding? mai bpen rai! i simply enjoyed your company. . .and the flowers too!

Martyn said... Best Blogger Tips

Stray you've captured some beautiful shots of the floats, flowers and trees on display. I especially like the twisted Bonsai trees, very cool.

Wilai bought a cactus plant in Nong Khai a couple of years back but it just kind of....died. The ones in your photos looks healthy enough.

The 35th Chiang Mai Flower Festival, that's a lot of years and plenty of pollen they've spread about. Is their a pharmacy outside the park doing a roaring trade in hay fever pills.

Snap said... Best Blogger Tips

@Martyn One of those wind swept bonsai trees looks like it may have been returning home from the same pub you frequent ;)

It was a bloomin' good afternoon and apparently flowers are not what I'm allergic too...that's still a mystery.