St Martin's Day, Ploenchit Fair, and recovery..

We celebrated St Martin's Day with some German friends last night. Until yesterday I'd never heard of it. We "marched" to an Australian pub with the kids carrying their lanterns and not quite knowing if they should be singing or not and then spent the rest of the evening eating and drinking whilst the kids caused chaos and mayhem. A good evening.

This is what www.wikipedia.com says about St Martin's Day:

The day is celebrated in the evening of November 11 in Flanders, parts of the Netherlands and most areas of Germany and Austria. Children go by the doors with paper lanterns and candles, and sing songs about St. Martin and about their lantern in return for a treat, very similar to the American tradition of Halloween. Often, a man dressed as St. Martin rides on a horse in front of the procession.

For obvious reasons we decided to do without the horse.

Next week is the Ploenchit Fair. Organised by the British Community in Thailand Foundation for the Needy this has been an annual event since 1956. It was traditionally held in the grounds of the British Embassy Bangkok but recently changed location from the British Embassy Bangkok to Suan Lum Night Bazaar and BEC Tero Hall. It's hugely popular and is the biggest one-day charity event in Asia, attracting more than 20,000 people.

I've never been to the new venue before but it was a great day when it was held at the British Embassy. Presumably the location change has done nothing to alter the feel of the day. Highly recommended.

Despite still being in pain I appear to be on the road to recovery, and hopefully able to get on the road from Chiang Mai to Phuket some time early next year.

Sunday again which means the weekly trip to ballet school for the daughter. Roughly translated this means I get an hour of free time to sit in a coffee shop with a good book.

St Martin's Day, Ploenchit Fair, and recovery..