04-05-09 Funny Thing On Way to Work

It's Sunday morning. Daeng got up about 7:00 AM and went to the morning market to buy the things she needs for her "Som-Tom Papaya" stand.

She decided that she has so much fun doing this every year during the Thai New Year water holiday that she wants to do it again. She has been doing this for over ten years.

Her first day, this year, was yesterday and she sold about 30 orders.

After buying her supplies at the morning market she stopped back and woke me up with coffee.

She left for work around 9:00 and drove from the guest house were we live along the river on the Myanmar (Burma) Border.

When she hit the main street she saw a large number of people celebrating.

It was a parade with boys in brightly colored outfits, like at the celebrations on Friday.

Some were in horse drawn carriages.

Some were on the shoulders of their Fathers and some were on elephants.

This is the same kind of celebration that we attended on Friday but just bigger with many boys doing it at the same time.

We were told yesterday that many parents have their boys do this ceremony around this time of year as it is the low or slow time of the year. The rice has been harvested and it is to dry to plant again. That means there is not much work and they can celebrate the harvests of the last year. I say harvests, in the plural, as there are at least two rice harvest a year in this part of Thailand.

By the way, elephants don't see very well so if you hold up your cellular telephone to take a picture they will reach out, take your phone and eat it. They think it is food. In the picture above, that is what the elephant is trying to do, reaching for a spectator's phone.

Yep, these folks sure know how to party. After Daeng took the pictures she went on to work to sell Som-Tom Papaya Salad. We will let you know how her stand does in the days to come.