30-Dec-2013 Monday, Prelude to New Year’s Eve

The Thai people are preparing for the annual New Year’s festival – they celebrate New Year’s BIG! The central area is over by Tha Phae Gate, on my walk back from the Flower Market, I took a couple photos of the setup. Tomorrow it will be crowded with the fun and food beginning.

New Year’s Celebration Setup

From just down the street, the setup is evident. In the background is the wall by Tha Phae Gate, the gate on the east side of the wall. At one time, long ago, there was a second or outer wall to the east and south of the existing inner wall. “Tha Phae” means “raft landing.” On the inner wall, this gate was originally named Chiang Ruak Gate after the neighboring village on the Ping river, but became commonly referred to as Thaphae Nai (inner) to distinguish it from the Thaphae Nok (outer) placed on the outer wall and close to a crossing point of the river. When the outer wall was demolished the name Tha Phae remained as the common name of the

inner wall’s east gate.

Here at the Tha Phae Gate square area is the Happy New Year 2014, and in the next photo, the stage and setup.

There will be bands and dancing and other festivities on this stage. This is a BIG celebration, starting at about dinner time and lasting until well after midnight.

There have been sporadic fireworks each evening, and there will be unofficial fireworks in many places soon after dark on New Year’s. Last year at midnight, the sky lit up with the biggest fireworks display I have ever witnessed.

Dinner at Kanjana

I wandered down to Soi 5 off Ratchadamnoen Road to see if the owner of Kanjana restaurant had returned from holiday, and I was happy to see Kanjana open. It was not crowded, which is unusual, but this is the first day open after a couple of weeks off.

I had my favorite dinner, pumpkin curry, morning glory stems fried in oyster sauce with garlic, and rice. I also splurged with a Coca-Cola (made with real sugar here, tastes so good). you can see my little book to the left…it is always with me and I am always writing what I saw and did. Another great meal!

Pumpkins are commonly eaten by the Thai people, especially in northern Thailand. Thai pumpkins are a little different than the plain orange pumpkins in the U.S., but are clearly recognizable as a related to the orange pumpkins. They are all part of the squash family. Here is a picture of some pumpkins at a local Chiang Mai market.

Next: New Year’s Eve in Chiang Mai