Flower Blooming Festival

February is the flower blooming season in Chiang Mai - so, of course there is a Flower Blooming Festival. Here are some pictures...

As usual - double click for a larger picture.

First comes the Flower Qeen

then come groups of people from different parts of the region in their traditional costumes,

then the wagons, all decorated in flowers...

even pictures are made of flowers!

and different ornaments of flowers!

Strawberries are also represented... they are not as tasty as we are used to :-(

If the spectators are very good looking, the procession stops for a while,
so they can be photgraphed with us

It seems they have been working on it for a while...

and here even longer...

even a picture of the King is handmade with love

These decorations you can admire for a while

The participants are well taken care of  by the staff with water supply,

or make-up improvements.

Care for a boiled egg?

We were not the only ones taking pictures...

Isn´t that beautiful?

Isn´t this a piece of art?

...the cleaning staff is ready to make the street nice after the parade...

In another part of the old town, there is a Flower market...

not only flowers to buy...

all kinds of ginger roots and other miracle herbs

a bag of self-grown mushrooms,

ha ha ha... sweet bananas of course...

pots for your flowers,

be photographed as "Flower Queen"

of introduced to some famous "Thai sniff"-balm

future Flower Queens?

all types of orchids for sale... and very very cheap, as the Thai say:-)

Take a break with a cool draught beer...

or have fun in the "knitting world"

you could buy orchids in a bottle?!

and many different kinds of food

and more food...

and ice-cream of course...

Can you imagine a festival without a Flower Beauty Contest?

One of them were chosen Flower Queen - can you guess who?