Thai Sport Day and Marching, Isaan Thailand.

Our sport day had arrived, and the students had worked hard overnight. I spoke to one of the students from year 11 and he told me that he hasn’t been home, that he and his other classmates slept at the school finishing everything off and getting ready for the parade. Apparently they got 2 hours sleep at the most.

Team Blue Cheer and their offering, pretty impressive.

Team Black Cheer had done a great job and their cheer area looked top notch.

And my Team Red’s cheer area, wasn’t a bad effort.

Assumption College sport day flame waiting to be lit.

And as I walked to the university to watch and photograph the parade I took some pictures of Thai traffic. This driver, a typical ignorant and idiotic Thai driver with no common sense and only worried about himself is cutting into the motorbike lane and pushing them right across. Thais do believe that the bigger the vehicle then you have right of way. This really fucks me off and often leads to me letting the driver know they have fucked up and I am pissed off.

I arrived at the corner of the university and could hear the beating of the drums from the marching band; the students had started their parade.

And this is the main intersection, peak hour and really busy. I couldn’t believe that the powers to be decided to make the students march at this time of the morning, absolutely ludicrous.

And a student in a beautiful Thai outfit leading the parade proudly.

And the school name, this was so all the furious motorists could call the local government and complain.

And the first traffic balls-up, this guy had cut between teams marching. I had actually tried to stop him but he ignored me and ended stuck on the inside of the marchers.

And as the parade headed down the main road, two motorists were stuck on the inside of the marchers. Thankfully they were released after some teachers made a gap for them.

The marchers reached Tesco Lotus, about halfway to their destination. Traffic was banked up as far as you could see down the main road.


What amazes me is how close cars and motorbikes come to the marchers; sometimes it is just centimeters away from hitting a marcher.

And then as Clint Eastwood (Gunnery Sergeant Highway) said in Heartbreak Ridge, “It’s a cluster fuck, sir.” And this one just because I love it (I've drunk more beer and pissed more blood, banged more quiff and busted more ass, than all you numbnuts put together.)

All the traffic had been brought to a complete stop by the one and only police officer we had. The marchers were crossing over into the right hand lane. If you look and see how far the marchers stretched back, this was going to take a while and cause traffic mayhem.

I then noticed that the traffic on the other side of the road was also banking up. This shouldn’t be as these lanes were clear.

And what had happened was a crash, a small one thankfully. Either the drivers of the car or motorbike were rubbernecking at the amazing parade happening and not being so attentive about driving.

And the marchers marched on, there were now two groups that were split in half and on opposite sides of the road with a 500 metre or so gap between them.

And the marchers marched on; there were now two groups that were split in half and on opposite sides of the road with a 500 metre or so gap between them.

The band and marchers in front then had to wait for the others to catch up before heading into the school.

I have never been a big fan of this parade before as it has nothing to do with sports, but I tolerate it and go along with it as in previous years. This year delaying the marching time by an hour was a decision that should have never happened or been allowed.

The person or persons who made this decision need to be pulled over hot coals and also have a psychiatric check, the parade though harmless and probably the most enjoyable part of the whole day should only be about the costumes and content and not about “maximum exposure”.

All the locals know where our school is, it is bloody hard to miss it.

So this was the march to the school and this was just the start of the day and all the shenanigans that were to come.

Brunty