Up, Up and Away!

I went to the Pattaya International Balloon Fiesta yesterday with a few friends, but not The Husband as he had to work. It promised a hot air balloon display with balloons from all over the world, in all different shapes and sizes. We arrived just before 2pm and the car park attendant swiftly informed us that the balloons started at 4pm. Only in Thailand could you have an all-day balloon festival with no balloons until the late afternoon. Still, the weather was lovely and, with the sun on our backs, we wandered around the few stalls that were open. Lily, the two year old of the group, picked up a stick and had a great time playing with it in the dirt. We all bought some food and sat down to listen to the band rehearsing. We assume they were just a group from the nearby university but the lead singer obviously thought otherwise as he strutted around with an air of great self-importance!

After snacking on fried quails eggs, omelette and rice, crab and pork, strawberries, and banana and raisin pancakes, we headed over to the dirt bike racing track. To be honest, I was quite glad to leave with my life. The lack of any form of health and safety was quite astonishing, even for Thailand. The only thing separating the crowd of spectators from the track was a thigh-high flimsy net. Each time the bikes roared around, they came so close to us we were covered with a splattering of dirt kicked up by their wheels! I suppose the possibility that you might be mown down by a motorbike added to the excitement of it all!

When the balloons did finally go up it was quite a sight. Trucks carrying the balloons toured the ground, lighting up the burners and sending shots of flames up into the air to announce that the balloons were about to go up. It was fascinating to see them being heated up, metamorphosing from large pieces of flimsy fabric to huge balloons, capable of sending people in a little wicker basket high up into the air. Each time a balloon took flight, a cheer would erupt from the crowd and everyone would wave. Later came balloons in different shapes - a towering Coke bottle, a huge pink elephant, a farmhouse complete with farmer and animals, even one shaped as Darth Vader!

An aside: during the day, numerous people took little blonde haired, blue eyed Lily's picture, something I found quite odd but which happens everywhere she goes in this country! Ok, so she's very cute but it's not like we're in the depths of the Amazon - this is Pattaya, a holiday destination that attracts hoards of tourists; I'm sure they've seen blonde children before. And anyway, what do they do with the photos? Do they have a farang baby album which they add to each time they see a cute kid? There was one man who was there with his young daughter but ignored her and just followed Lily about with his camera!

After we'd tired of balloons, we filed back to the cars, only to be stuck in a huge traffic jam as cars tried to get both in and out of the venue. It took us a good half an hour just to get out. This wasn't helped by the Thai inability to queue. We were crawling past an exit to our left whereby a number of cars were attempting to join our lane. We let out two cars but the third pushed his way out, causing us to beep him out of the way. He very nearly caused an accident in his haste to get out and, in fact, did just that five minutes later when he went straight into the side of a car turning right across him. He obviously didn't want him to get in front of him so just kept moving forward! Luckily, we made it back in one piece where The Husband was preparing a roast chicken. I prepared some mashed potato and green beans and we had Christmas pud for afters. What a lovely end to the day!