Celebration!

Earlier this month, Thailand celebrated the 83rd birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The King has reigned since June 1946, making him the world's longest serving current head of state and the longest reigning monarch in Thai history.

The Thai people love & revere the King, and Chiang Mai held a huge celebration that lasted for several days!

The birthday celebration events centered around this huge stage that was decorated with several tiers of gorgeous flowers - white mums, purple orchids and pink roses, with little white lights laced thru the flowers for a beautiful effect.

Each evening was filled with pomp & circumstance. Everyone turned out in their pink shirts, pink being the King's color choice of late. During this part, the candle lighting ceremony, everyone made their way to the stage area - with their pink candles - to watch the various presentations of devotion to the King.

We were standing by, watching as the candle lighting ceremony unfolded & suddenly, as one woman walked by me to join the inner crowd, she handed me her candle! Then someone else lit it & nudged me into the area, so in I went & stood among the Thais as they sang to their King!

It was a weird and wonderful moment!

Later we watched a beautiful re-enactment of the famous Three Kings story, about the founding of Chiang Mai - lots of dancing, gorgeous costumes & lovely music.

Afterwards, we visited the food stalls & found a new entrant to the 'Food-on-a-Stick' category: the Cake Ball!

First bite! We shared the cake-ball as we wandered down the street.

So, what is it? Three layers of cake batter around a center...

...what is that?

...a piece of ...Hotdog?? ...huh?

Well, the fun didn't end there. While we were trying to figure out what to do with this thing... we noticed a rat skittering along in the gutter. We figured he might as well have it, so I dropped it for him & in about 3 seconds, he had the entire thing pulled into some secret place & was having a happy meal & a celebration of his own!