All the Fun of the (Temple) Fair !!

Last weekend was a pretty exciting time at my local temple, just a couple of hundred metres away from my home. It was the annual Temple Fair!

The temple that sits at the end of Phahon Yothin 52 is a bit of an anomaly I can't quite work out as it has two names, Wat Nong Pakchi (วัดหนองผักชี) and Wat Rat Niyomtham (วัดราษฎร์นิยมธรรม). 'Wat' is the English phonetic for Temple in Thai. All I can assume is that it's two temples combined and they both have different functions but I have no idea what. Top investigative journalist I am!

I love these fairs. They take me back to a simpler time when you didn't need high technology to have fun. This being Thailand, there is food everywhere as well as side stalls, games, a few small rides, bingo and a huge stage with a very loud PA where semi-famous artists perform.

The whole village turned out and it was packed full of families and local folk both young and old just enjoying the atmosphere. When you walk around, you just can't help but smile. The whole atmosphere is one of simple joy and the setting, amidst the temple grounds and highly ornate temple buildings is surreal!

As I take you through the pictures, a warning to animal lovers. There is a small petting zoo with a few goats and pigs who get fed by people buying a small bottle of milk or cup of feed. It's hot, the pens are cramped, and it isn't great but thankfully, the cages of puppies for sale I used to see at these events seem to have disappeared. Small steps.

Ok, so on with the show...........

The first notice you get that fair time is approaching is the setting up of posters and coloured fluorescent tubes at the end of the street. Thais are masters of fluorescent tube art as you will see later!

If like me, the first thing you wonder is; "where do they get the electric from?" , then you'll be pleased to know I have an answer. As far as I could tell, they simply use big crocodile clips to tap into the nearest street lamp! Imagine doing that in the UK!

The entrance to the Temple was crowded with people and motorcycle taxis picking people up and dropping them off, and of course, more fluorescent tubes!

Barbecued Quail anyone? In Thailand, people love Quail. Both the eggs and spit-roasted over hot coals like this...

And so to a few games.......

Get the tennis ball in the hole........

Get the basket over the bottle......

......and my personal favourite; Burst the balloon with the blunt dart!

Now, most of these games were 20Baht (£0.50, $0.70) and despite numerous attempts to win the wife a huge cuddly toy, I failed miserably. For the amount of money I spent, I could have probably bought her a Stieff collectable, but where's the fun in that? Almost a week later, she is still bemoaning my failure.

Of course, like fun fairs everywhere else in the world, the games are designed so you don't win. That tennis ball could barely fit into that square and the basket barely covered the bottle. As for the darts; they were blunted and the air rifles had their sights twisted. Fair enough, as I said, no different from any other fun fair anywhere else in the world, but add this to the pressure of the wife pointing to the huge Hello Kitty soft toy and the look of menace on her face and my performance was bound to suffer!

P-I-Y Paint it yourself!!

Something I haven't seen before outside Thailand are these stalls that sell plaster of paris character models, jugs and vases from as little as 20Baht and then give you little pots of paint and a brush which you take and sit down and paint. It's so popular as you can see from the pictures and the wife loves these too. If you want, they will glaze it in their oven too for a small additional charge and you can pick it up later to take home. My wife always has to paint one so sadly, while she was painting, I had to go and sit for an hour with a beer and watch the scantily clad Isaan singer on stage which would have been quite good fun except that I had to listen to her too!!!

Luckily, my new gaudily coloured Mickey mouse desk pencil holder got claimed by one of her pupils

And so to the rides.......

Merry-go-round.....

Bouncy, slidey castle....

Little cars on a track ride....

....and a 'Ferris wheel' that was made from nothing stronger than fluorescent tubes and Meccano! *

*(anyone under 40 will probably have to google Meccano!)

No I didn't! God knows I'm not risk-averse, I do some ridiculously dangerous and idiotic things here, but riding on that Heath Robinson contraption? errr NO, just NO!!

Animal Rights people look away now...

The mini petting zoo was extremely popular, so much so that some of the goats had obviously drunk that much milk they decided simply to have a sleep.
Upon looking at these snatched shots (I really don't like taking pictures of people), I realised that the pig in the right shot looks like its being breastfed but I can assure everyone this wasn't the case. I know that Thailand can be quite liberal, but there are limits!
The other point is, for anyone who knows about farms and their animals, pigs have a bite that can take off your fingers. There were no warning signs!!

It was a brilliant evening and I love visiting these fairs. No health and Safety and no one died (I think), just happy people meandering about, eating, having fun and smiling. A lot!!

And I guess that's about it except for a couple more blurry shots of some more neon and fluorescent tubes and a badly lit distance shot of part of the temple!!

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend and gets a chance to enjoy some simple pleasures and of course, I have posted the location on @steemitworldmap so that everyone can come along next time the fair is in town!

@nathen007

All photos were taken by myself last weekend and are free to use.

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 13.884661 lat 100.624612 long All the Fun of the (temple) Fair ! d3scr)