We seem to need two of everything these days. We apparently need two flower festivals running simultaneously. Honestly, do we really need two forums? I have just noticed we have two Dons posting on the forum, don battles and DonaldBattles. Even our village was divided into two, but that was clearly for the money.

Maybe Chiang Rai is just following the worldwide trend of polarization and division. Perhaps unity and compromise are outdated notions. The spread of knowledge and interconnectivity was supposed to bring us closer together but it seems to have had the opposite effect.

Is all this development filling a need, creating a need or just greed? People said Central would kill BigC but BigC seems busier than ever. What will Home Pro do to Sahapaiboon? So many questions and so few answers. So is Chiang Rai really so big we need two of everything?

Not sure about the rest but the two flower festivals certainly is confusing...I see signs that say it is dec 20 to jan 5...I see other signs that say dec 20 to jan 20....I understand there is some kind of show downtown in addition to the big one on the river...I have seen other dates listed as dec 24 to jan 5..

Fortunately or unfortunately I won't be here to attend this year anyway but hopefully somebody will sort it all out and do a better/less confusing job next year.

I am on the Phuket and Chiang Rai Forum. sometimes, I post to the National Forum. Formerly I was a sponsor for both forums.

Not sure about the rest but the two flower festivals certainly is confusing...I see signs that say it is dec 20 to jan 5...I see other signs that say dec 20 to jan 20....I understand there is some kind of show downtown in addition to the big one on the river...I have seen other dates listed as dec 24 to jan 5..

Fortunately or unfortunately I won't be here to attend this year anyway but hopefully somebody will sort it all out and do a better/less confusing job next year.

My understanding is dec20-jan5 is by the river and 20-20 is in town. Perhaps another example of people refusing to work together to make one really good venue, being unable or unwilling to compromise.

I am on the Phuket and Chiang Rai Forum. sometimes, I post to the National Forum. Formerly I was a sponsor for both forums.

So are you still using both names, donbattles and DonaldBattles? I didn't know one person could do that. Learn something everyday.

Not sure about the rest but the two flower festivals certainly is confusing...I see signs that say it is dec 20 to jan 5...I see other signs that say dec 20 to jan 20....I understand there is some kind of show downtown in addition to the big one on the river...I have seen other dates listed as dec 24 to jan 5..

Fortunately or unfortunately I won't be here to attend this year anyway but hopefully somebody will sort it all out and do a better/less confusing job next year.

My understanding is dec20-jan5 is by the river and 20-20 is in town. Perhaps another example of people refusing to work together to make one really good venue, being unable or unwilling to compromise.

The one downtown is probably going to be on Walking Street at the site of the historical prison, and where special Christmas & New Years period stages are put up. It is much smaller than the one at the river, and is oriented toward the Walking Street events. They had the same thing last year. Nice, and I see no conflict.

Sounds good to me, I'll probably take in the one near the river again but for no other reason than the Mrs likes it.

What's that trade fair thingy that's been on out at the old airport, I went a couple of years ago and there was good shopping there, lots of new gadgets.

What time of the year was that?

I could look it up I know but I have to conserve my strength for a run to the border tomorrow.

As far as I can tell the one in town is the Tessabahn one. It has floats from local people. The one on the river is a much grander affair more like the Royal Flora one in ChiangMai.

One may have more flowers but the little one may have more participation by people such as the local schoolkids.

This is not to be taken as factual because I cannot get a straight answer...More a who cares about things like that one

....or a "don't you worry about stuff like that, I'll tell you where we are going and when" thing ?

We just had our flower festival in Phayao. It went from 01 to 10 December. It also had food stalls from the region, music, fireworks every night and a beauty pageant on the last night.

Chiang Rai is still a country rice farming town. Very few farangs are moving here to be residents. There are a number of Thais moving here to retire. Don't be fooled by all of the land back filling that you see. Much of this is done to launder money.

For those who wish to know, I use one name for Phuket Forum and my other name for the Chiang Rai Forum. This was needed as the system did not allow me to use on name for both forums.

One of some things is often too many. I try not to dwell on it much.

move here