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The annual Temple Fair in Samut Prakan kicked off early this morning with the parade through town. The fair at Phra Samut Chedi has been going on now for 183 years which I believe makes it the longest running temple fair in Thailand. Certainly one of the oldest. In the olden days, people would come down from Bangkok by boat. Back then, this temple used to be in the middle of the river. These days it is now on the West Bank but the fair is still as popular. Leading the parade was the sacred red cloth which will later be wrapped around the pagoda in an important ceremony.

The opening ceremony early this morning was presided over by Mr. Cherdsak Choosri, the Governor of Samut Prakan Province.

There were no big floats in this parade unlike the ones at Songkran and Loy Krathong. This is mainly because there are many stalls along the road and in the City Hall Plaza so very little room for anything large. The parade left at 8.15 a.m. and it took nearly an hour for us to see everything.

Many of the students from local schools dressed up using various themes. In front of the Provincial Police Station, there were judges who were giving scores for each of the groups in the parade.

The parade went on a circular route through the town as far as Taiban Circle and then back via the market. The float carrying the red cloth came back at a time when we still couldn't see the end of the parade. So, I had to leave the parade at this time to follow the red cloth which was now being taken to the waterfront by a platoon of soldiers.

Here a boat was waiting to take the red cloth and the Governor upriver to Phra Pradaeng. In this city they had a smaller parade for the red cloth before it was taken on its last journey by truck to Phra Samut Chedi. I will tell you about this next ceremony soon.