The fair...

I was prepared for a very quiet Friday night when at Friday lunch, my host teacher brought up the idea of going to the fair. I thought, heck, I'm not doing anything tonight, might as well go. I was thinking it would be a street with a lot of vendors and food. Oh no. This was the full on county fair! We finally made it into the dirt field/parking lot after driving over the median and braving the mile long traffic jam. I was greeted by neon signs and sooooo many people. There were carnies, those silly games for you to lose money trying to get a giant stuffed animal, meat on a stick, fried bugs, a ferris wheel, live music, an all-night dancing pavillion, exhibitions, and plenty of things to buy. The highlight was definitely the wooden velodrome. We paid our 40 baht to climb up to the top of the giant round wooden structure and gathered around the railing. At the bottom was a car and a motorcycle. We waited until the railing was completely lined with the gathered crowd, and then a wooden section of the slanted floor/wall opened and two men came out. The first man hopped on the motorcycle and was off! Driving up the wall around and around until he was scary close to where we were standing. Next up, the man in the car did the same thing, even leaning out the window with no hands on wheel. The whole structure shook and it definitely got the heart rate up!


There was even a pool filled with giant inflated plastic balls that children were inside...kind of like hamsters...


Cheng and I stuffed into the tiny cage on the ferris wheel.

My host teachers made me do it!!!


We made it back to Chiang Saen around 1am after a midnight stop for noodles (because this is Thailand afterall). None of us won any stuffed animals although my two co-teachers did get some tupperware in a raffle, but it was a great night!