Thursday, January 26, 2012

Enthusiasm

Hi,

A warm day followed by a warm night. My kind of weather. I'm not banking on it though, it could change any time. There was a lot of activity in Chiang Rai today as the 750th Anniversary celebrations went into high gear.

It would appear that the 'Song of '78' is not readily available from your memory banks. Here's a little more:
"It's not in the words that you told me, girl. It's not in the way you say you're mine, ooh. It's not in the way that you come back to me. It's not in the way that your love set me free. It's not in the way you look or the things that you say that you'll do. __ __ __, love isn't always on time, love isn't always on time... Whoa whoa whoa." Clue: The title is something you might tell someone when you have to leave the phone for a moment.

This morning we went to Makro for a few things and planned to go to bus station street for more errands. As we drove down the highway towards town, we had just crossed the bridge over the river when we were confronted with a detour. What? A policeman was standing in front of a temporary gate across the road. We followed the other cars into a neighborhood very close to where we lived in the rental house. We approached a bottleneck so I turned deeper into the old hood. What finally happened is, we ended up back on the highway near Big C, past our destination street.

Having completely changed our plans for the morning, we headed home. As we passed the Fan Guy's shop we saw a big Dragon and a drum crew doing their thing. We called our friend Chalit to see if he knew what the detour was all about. There was a big ceremony at Mengrai Monument marking the beginning of the year-long celebration of the 750th Anniversary of Chiang Rai Province. This evening there is another big event at Rai Maefarluang for dignitaries and it turns out we don't get to go see the exhibit again. Oh well, it will be up for the whole year.

The whole city was buzzing with activity tonight. There is a park near the center of town where an old prison used to be. It was the focus of what looked like community based celebrations, similar to the Saturday night Walking Street. Traffic was thick and streets were blocked. I wish we had an English-language newspaper in town so we could keep up with all of this. I guess we'll have to get one of our friends to keep us in the loop.

Have a Thrilling Thursday.

Peace,
Danny

"Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier."

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