BonnieandClyde Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Our neighbour's daughter and her boyfriend just got back and told us it was "sa-nook"; a predictable response. Have any members gone? What's it like this year? Is it worth the trip? Thanks for any input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar2 Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 it's the same every year. it's for kids. lots of yaabaa, gang rivalry, and the like. every year same vendors. music is not very good, fights break out often...give it a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamborobert Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Went last night and last year. Only thing I can agree with Oscar2 about is that it is almost identiccal. Lots of food, displays, dancing, sideshows, train rides etc. Always packed so if you have a few kids you need to keep a close eye on them or if they are older have a pre-arranged meeting point for later. Its nothing spectacular but to me no way as grim as Oscar2 portrays...saw no fights or gangs (this time or last time). Its a harmless way to spend a few hours with younger kids. I would be more concerned with taking the elderly or infirm, the ground is slippery and uneven in lots of areas and the crowd makes it diffult to move through as a group. Its not a must see event by any means but kids will like it (pre-school to teenagers). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar2 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Went last night and last year. Only thing I can agree with Oscar2 about is that it is almost identiccal. Lots of food, displays, dancing, sideshows, train rides etc. Always packed so if you have a few kids you need to keep a close eye on them or if they are older have a pre-arranged meeting point for later. Its nothing spectacular but to me no way as grim as Oscar2 portrays...saw no fights or gangs (this time or last time). Its a harmless way to spend a few hours with younger kids. I would be more concerned with taking the elderly or infirm, the ground is slippery and uneven in lots of areas and the crowd makes it diffult to move through as a group. Its not a must see event by any means but kids will like it (pre-school to teenagers). each year at least one or two Burmese gang members is stabbed by a rival gang member at the winter fair. yaabaa and ice is openly sold/traded. definitely not for young children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamborobert Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) Went last night and last year. Only thing I can agree with Oscar2 about is that it is almost identiccal. Lots of food, displays, dancing, sideshows, train rides etc. Always packed so if you have a few kids you need to keep a close eye on them or if they are older have a pre-arranged meeting point for later. Its nothing spectacular but to me no way as grim as Oscar2 portrays...saw no fights or gangs (this time or last time). Its a harmless way to spend a few hours with younger kids. I would be more concerned with taking the elderly or infirm, the ground is slippery and uneven in lots of areas and the crowd makes it diffult to move through as a group. Its not a must see event by any means but kids will like it (pre-school to teenagers). each year at least one or two Burmese gang members is stabbed by a rival gang member at the winter fair. yaabaa and ice is openly sold/traded. definitely not for young children. There were hundreds if not thousands) of primary and pre-school children in family groups there at sideshows, riding on questionable ferris wheels, train rides, sideshow games, and a fairly good petting zoo......all enjoying themselves. The only danger I saw for kids was eating food, going on rides, and then a bit of projectile vomit. It's packed with people enjoying theselves and some go night after night. Its suprising to me that so few people drink there and how little trouble there is(unless presumably you are a yabba dealing Burmese gang member) all other demographics seem ok. It's a fair and its definately for families with and without children. As said biggest risk for all "other" demographics is navigating through crowd on uneven ground. Its a cheap night out...give it a go. Perhaps some other posts and views would assist OP as we are miles apart. Edited January 6, 2014 by mamborobert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouse Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Went last night and last year. Only thing I can agree with Oscar2 about is that it is almost identiccal. Lots of food, displays, dancing, sideshows, train rides etc. Always packed so if you have a few kids you need to keep a close eye on them or if they are older have a pre-arranged meeting point for later. Its nothing spectacular but to me no way as grim as Oscar2 portrays...saw no fights or gangs (this time or last time). Its a harmless way to spend a few hours with younger kids. I would be more concerned with taking the elderly or infirm, the ground is slippery and uneven in lots of areas and the crowd makes it diffult to move through as a group. Its not a must see event by any means but kids will like it (pre-school to teenagers). each year at least one or two Burmese gang members is stabbed by a rival gang member at the winter fair. yaabaa and ice is openly sold/traded. definitely not for young children. There were hundreds if not thousands) of primary and pre-school children in family groups there at sideshows, riding on questionable ferris wheels, train rides, sideshow games, and a fairly good petting zoo......all enjoying themselves. The only danger I saw for kids was eating food, going on rides, and then a bit of projectile vomit. It's packed with people enjoying theselves and some go night after night. Its suprising to me that so few people drink there and how little trouble there is(unless presumably you are a yabba dealing Burmese gang member) all other demographics seem ok. It's a fair and its definately for families with and without children. As said biggest risk for all "other" demographics is navigating through crowd on uneven ground. Its a cheap night out...give it a go. Perhaps some other posts and views would assist OP as we are miles apart. Agreed it's likely to be an accident on one of the rides that does for your kids rather than being stabbed by a Burmese Immigrant 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funcat Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 It's same, same as every year...well,the 'big' train is not there anymore....and the rides and carousels are older,so pay attention to the safety of your kids... The problems with gangs are mostly related to concerts,so better stay away while this is in progress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellodolly Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Went last night and last year. Only thing I can agree with Oscar2 about is that it is almost identiccal. Lots of food, displays, dancing, sideshows, train rides etc. Always packed so if you have a few kids you need to keep a close eye on them or if they are older have a pre-arranged meeting point for later. Its nothing spectacular but to me no way as grim as Oscar2 portrays...saw no fights or gangs (this time or last time). Its a harmless way to spend a few hours with younger kids. I would be more concerned with taking the elderly or infirm, the ground is slippery and uneven in lots of areas and the crowd makes it diffult to move through as a group. Its not a must see event by any means but kids will like it (pre-school to teenagers). each year at least one or two Burmese gang members is stabbed by a rival gang member at the winter fair. yaabaa and ice is openly sold/traded. definitely not for young children. There were hundreds if not thousands) of primary and pre-school children in family groups there at sideshows, riding on questionable ferris wheels, train rides, sideshow games, and a fairly good petting zoo......all enjoying themselves. The only danger I saw for kids was eating food, going on rides, and then a bit of projectile vomit. It's packed with people enjoying theselves and some go night after night. Its suprising to me that so few people drink there and how little trouble there is(unless presumably you are a yabba dealing Burmese gang member) all other demographics seem ok. It's a fair and its definately for families with and without children. As said biggest risk for all "other" demographics is navigating through crowd on uneven ground. Its a cheap night out...give it a go. Perhaps some other posts and views would assist OP as we are miles apart. Thank you for an honest review. Mr Doom and Gloom would have us believing it is a riot. As in all gatherings of that size there will be small groups there who are not there to enjoy it just to do what they do. Yaba and pretend they are cool. Some people tend to drift towards these groups for one reason or another. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BonnieandClyde Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Before settling in Chiang Mai semi-permanently, we were frequent visitors, starting in the 1990s. As snowbirds, our visits would usually coincide with the Winter Fair. In those days it was held at the old Sanahm Gee-lah near the Chang Puak Monument. It wasn't something to write-home-about, but it was fun, and there were a lot of good things on sale. One year Garuda Airlines had a booth promoting their services and selling craftwork from Indonesia at very low prices. We bought a pair of beautiful Javanese Wayang [is that right?] Puppets that we still have. What prompted the topic was curiosity about what it is like now. So thanks for all the helpful replies and the warnings as well. We'll try to go sometime before it ends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxhound Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 When will it end? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamborobert Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 The Winter OTOP fair finishes up on January 12th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MESmith Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Do they still have the wall of death motorcycle ride? Only thing worth seeing when I last went, over 10 years ago. The rest was the usual market stalls & such, & far too loud speakers blasting different sounds from all directions (surprise, surprise ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamborobert Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) Do they still have the wall of death motorcycle ride? Only thing worth seeing when I last went, over 10 years ago. The rest was the usual market stalls & such, & far too loud speakers blasting different sounds from all directions (surprise, surprise ) They had a place that was like a large barrel on end that you went up stairs to look down at motorcycles riding round on the side....thats about the closest thing I saw there if that's what you mean. Some of the kiddie rides are potential death traps, and also they have cleverly got rid of the big train and replaced it with several smaller so the trains get to play dodgem with pedestrians a lot easier and more frequent. Other than that only other death related seems to be if tiy are a yabba dealing Burmese gang member. Noise from speakers....yes we have noise speakers....lots of noise speakers...from personal experience it also gives a challenge to trying to hear people on the phone when you drift apart....apparently when I say to kids "stay the <deleted> here and I will be back" the noise from speakers distorts this as "go play hide and seek and when I try to ring you make sure you are near a speaker so cannot either a.) here call, or b.) tell me accurately (I like to dream of getting accurate directions) where you are". Hence my first post on kiddie control. Edited January 6, 2014 by mamborobert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamborobert Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 For fans, Burmese drug dealing gang members, and the more adventurous of the Thaivisa crowd Carabao are apparently doing a concert there tonight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MESmith Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Do they still have the wall of death motorcycle ride? Only thing worth seeing when I last went, over 10 years ago. The rest was the usual market stalls & such, & far too loud speakers blasting different sounds from all directions (surprise, surprise ) They had a place that was like a large barrel on end that you went up stairs to look down at motorcycles riding round on the side....thats about the closest thing I saw there if that's what you mean. That's it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar2 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 For fans, Burmese drug dealing gang members, and the more adventurous of the Thaivisa crowd Carabao are apparently doing a concert there tonight. there have been a number of deaths at Carabao concerts. read up if you don't believe me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillageIdiot Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 For fans, Burmese drug dealing gang members, and the more adventurous of the Thaivisa crowd Carabao are apparently doing a concert there tonight. there have been a number of deaths at Carabao concerts. read up if you don't believe me. Maybe they are trying to carry on a tradition started by the Stones and Hells Angels at Altamont in 1969. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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