The Fair

The fair was put on to raise money for the school on whose football field the fair is being held. Everyone had to pay to get in. And then there was food and drinks. Lots of drinks.




We're in Northern Thailand so there is a lot of Northern food, including roasted beetles.

Doc is getting some of the food to bring back to our table.













This guy brought along his own stash of Shark brand liquor.











There were only a few fireworks and by the time I got the fireworks setting on my camera, they were over. So this shot gives you an alternative view.



In the background you can see the dance stage. The band played loud Thai songs, I wouldn't even hazard a guess what I would call the style. How about electified Thai. As part of the fund raiser, people paid Baht 10 per dance to go up on stage to dance. Each time masses of people went up the ramp for the privilege. The people around me were urging me to go up too and I agreed on the condition that Doc does as well. He said he didn't dance. I did have thoughts like, "I wonder how many people that stage can hold without collapsing?" and "Is it close to capacity?" Doc said that they have collapsed because there were too many people.







I generally do not use the flash, because it totally changes the atmosphere. The darkness of these pictures captures what it was like much better than a flash, even if you can't see all the details. But on request I did take some flash pictures too.

Note the red and blue ice buckets. One of my thoughts - sorry that's just how my brain works - was, who's going to clean all this up? This is a Thursday night. I asked if people had to go to work in the morning. They did. And would there be school? There would.






Doc got hold of the camera for a bit.





They kept persisting I should go up and dance. Being pestered to drink and dance and such things was common when I was a young peace corps volunteer, but the last few times I've been in Thailand people were told by my 'handlers' to not insist and they didn't. But here I was with farmers and factory workers who were, in some cases, drinking themselves sily - see below - I was the farang in the crowd. "I said I would dance if Doc dances." "He is going to dance." They said triumphantly. The picture with the squiggly lights gives you a much better sense of the night and the dancing stage than had I used a flash.



You think they've had enough? Back in the old days - yeah I know that phrase gets tiresome to hear - at least the places I was, the women, at the very most had a few sips of weak beer. If women's liberation is measured by drinking with the boys, some of these women were liberated.



Remember the blue and red ice buckets. Well, here are all the lids together, the water buckets together, and the buckets together the next morning.