Chiang Mai’s Version of the Rose Parade

This morning our tour leader told us that we were in luck: Once a year there is a flower festival that lasts 5 days and on one of those days there is a parade – yes, we were here on that day!

So we walked a couple of blocks from the hotel and very soon we heard music and saw banners announcing the flower festival.

I don’t know how long the parade route is, but the women with the banners were walking in high heels!

Then came women wearing what looked almost like wings, which were edged with flowers.

As is true with the Rose Parade, the event centers around a beauty contest. There seemed to be many princesses, some of them riding in antique or one-of-a-kind car, all of which were lavishly decorated with flowers. We were told that most of the flowers were actually silk or plastic, because fresh ones wouldn’t last long in this climate. (I am posting this at 6PM and it’s 81 degrees outside).

Many of the women who came first wore very colorful floral headdresses.

One of the cars seemed to be a MG

Driven by a man who was obviously having a very good time.

Another car seemed to be ‘woodie’ pick up truck

And it pulled a wagon behind it.

We never figured out just which people had won, but soon we saw a woman wearing a crown

And behind her came a car with two people wearing crowns in it. Our tour leader then explained to us that, in Thailand, transgender and transvestite people are accepted, and that part of the contest was for the most beautiful transvestite contestant – he is sitting on the right in this picture, wearing a crown and an orange dress.