Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2549

Yesterday (Monday, the 29th) was a full day at the flower festival just outside Chiang Mai. Dedicated to His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand, the experience was a bit like going to Disneyland without the rides. The number in the title next to the festival is the year - according to the Thai Calendar. The festival started last December and continues until Wednesday. We didn't know about the event until just a day or two ago and were really glad that we got to go.

We also picked the perfect day after deciding not to go yesterday because it was cloudy. Today the skies were perfectly clear blue - almost too hot, a little bit draining to walk around all day, but really brought out the colors. The park was huge and we had to skip some segments of the walking track to finish in one day. The park is regularly visited by 3,000 people each day and recently reached its 2,000,000 visitor. Unlike most of the tourist locations we've been, we were clear the minority in the crowd - probably one of only a handful of farang. Most of the tourists were Thai and most were wearing their finest yellow shirts in celebration of the royal family. All of the exhibits involved the king - either in discussing how his majesty ingeniously invented this or magnificently implemented that, etc. According to one of the posters, the king invented biodiesel in 2001. Maybe something was lost in translation....

Joking aside, King Bhumibol has implemented some great programs, and has clearly focused on supporting the rural people of Thailand. Chris, perhaps you could provide a more critically accurate explanation of his involvement in the comments. The country clearly devotes a lot of time in honoring and celebrating his existence, so I only assume some of his accomplishments have been effective. From what we read, even despite the claim of inventing biodiesel, Thailands emphasis on alternative energy and developing resources beyond petroleum is impressive. The festival had an entire plot dedicated as the Biodiesel Garden - displaying various plants that are feasible, and also those that aren't, for vegetable oil production in Thailand.

Other than the flowers, we also saw a two presentations: one of a tribal dance, and the other a Spanish Flamenco. I don't know what the connection between Thailand and Spain is, but the week is National Spanish Week. At the Spanish international garden we picked up a flyer advertising Eva Yerbabuena's Flameco Company - they supposedly have a show tonight in Chiang Mai and were hoping to see the show tonight.

One of the funnier exhibits we saw was Rubber Land. Not that rubber trees are funny, but because of the two people dressed as cartoons characters outside the display. As you can see in the picture, the tree has a giant gash cut into its chest and a bucket nailed to its side to collect the sap. I don't have any issue with harvesting rubber from trees, but it becomes creepy when you put eyeballs, arms, legs, and a giant smile on the tree. That and watching kids snuggle up to be big gash wound with streaks of sap, that looked like blood, running down the front of its torso. By the time I took the picture, the people in the suits were taking a break - the head lying on the ground makes it look like the worker was decapitated while cutting open the tree. Judging by the smiles, though, everything is great and the kids loved it!