Chiang Dao party

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

After some excellent pizza we got into a songthaew with Stuart and went off into the night! Apparently these kinds of festivals are held quite regularly across the area, with each village having about one a year. Chris thought that it seemed like a mix between bonfire night, an illegal rave and a village fete – and that pretty much covers it!
There was a stage where different people sang and danced in an almost professional fashion, there were food and drink stalls and there was the Thai boxing ring & VIP area. We got ourselves a can of Chang for 30p each and stood back to take it all in.
We were celebrities for the night, everyone was interested in us and smiled at us all the time. One guy asked Chris if he was going to be boxing that night! After a bit of a look around we ventured down towards the stage so that Chris could take a few snaps. We were kind of mobbed by Thai ladies and a few Thai men forcing us to dance! It was great fun!
After quite a lot of boogieing we headed over to the boxing ring to see what was going on. A couple of young lads were in the middle of their fight, and it wasn’t as violent as I thought it was going to be. We continued to stand around and half watch the boxing whilst also chatting to local people including the Chief of the village.
The rest of the evening carried on in a similar vein. The local people got steadily drunk on rice whisky while we drank more Chang, danced some more, and the adult boxers mainly drew their fights. They did some sort of strange ritual thing before each fight, praying at each corner and things. The last fight ended in a KO.
It was a surreal and very fun night (check out the photos)!