New Years Festival, Ubon Ratchathani Thailand.

Last week we headed to the annual Red Cross New Years Festival, it is held every year at the government offices here in Ubon Ratchathani. This year it is running from the 29th until the 7th.

There are games, rides and of course many different things to buy. All shoes were 100Baht.

Rastafarian style clothes have been popular for a long time here in Ubon. I see them for sale all over the place but never see many people wearing this style.

Another popular thing is the depiction of marijuana, usually the shape of leaves or in this case a joint being smoked.

There are plenty of things for the kids, from jumping castles to train rides.

The huge and scary Ferris wheel, I have been on much bigger Ferris wheels I am actually just scared of the maintenance or probably lack of it and how well it had been assembled.

And of course we had taken along Nong Ja, she was a little overwhelmed by everything at first and wanted to be carried.

Miss Noot and Nong Ja looking in one of the many toyshops. We wanted to get a small styled computer that makes plenty of noises as Nong Ja always wants to use the computer when you are working away.

Then it was time to play Bingo, Miss Noot and Nong Ja were choosing the lucky board that was going to win them a large stuffed toy.

It wasn’t long before Nong Ja had become bored of Bingo and headed off on an adventure. I sauntered behind as she took off and didn’t look back once to check I was following her.

Nong Ja decided to enter the toyshop again and this is what she chose.

This is the games lane. This was pretty quiet as it was early.

The most popular game is this. For 20 Thai baht you get 7 darts and have to pop 7 balloons to win a stuffed toy of your choice. You can pay more, 60 Baht for 3 darts and improve your chances.

Here Miss Benjawan was trying her luck, and her first dart went sideways and wrecked her chances of winning a toy.

Then it was some therapeutic therapy, shopping of course. Everything was 100 Baht or under at this stall.

Some nice cool drinks on offer; these were coconut, pineapple and lime flavoured. I had a lime and it was really good.

The bakery, there was plenty of cakes and other Thai sweets on offer. We bought a delicious banana cake.

And at nearly every festival or fair you will find these. They are claimed to be miniature rabbits. I see people buying them all the time on a spur of the moment whim, for sure.

Rabbits are cute I suppose. I used to think of them as pests and shoot, trap or poison them. They are pests in many places in Australia still and in plague proportions in many places.

I am now a rabbit owner; my first rabbits I was given by a friend whose rabbits had a kit of about 6. They were pure white like Cola above. My first rabbits were Latte and Mocha. Mocha died shortly after I got them, Latte lasted a year or so and then also suddenly died. I had read and researched so much about looking after rabbits and was really sad, angry as I had tried to do everything right that was offered on some large rabbit websites. I don’t think the vet I used when Latte became ill was worth a pinch of shit though.

Anyway, I was rabbit-less for a short while until my friend’s rabbits again a kit of rabbits and I was again coaxed into taking a pair. I was reluctant as anytime I have owned an animal it has been treated like a member of the family. And after I failed to look after my first pair of rabbits and I had no idea what I had done wrong. I didn’t want to kill two more rabbits.

I took in our new family members, Cola and Pepsi. Not long after their arrival Pepsi died. I came home from work and he was dead. I thought, ‘here we go again.’

Now over three years later, Cola is a healthy and active rabbit. He is treated very well. Fresh water each morning, fresh vegetables that are well washed, top of the line rabbit pellets, he is brushed nearly every day. He has massages that he loves and will often get to sit upside down (he likes this) on my lap and nod off for a while.

He has the run of the house. It has pretty well been rabbit proofed, to stop him nibbling cables and such. He has a bedroom to himself but spends little time in there. He uses it to eat and use his litter box. Otherwise he is in the lounge room lazing about and just watching the goings on.

Many people don’t understand that the tiny little cage the rabbit comes in is not a place they can spend much time. They need to be out to hop and jump about the place. Also maintenance, such a trimming nails is absolutely terrifying the first few times. Now Cola doesn’t even move when I trim his nails. The first few times I was a mess with scratches and poor old Cola huffing and puffing with a heartbeat going off the charts.

Cleaning the litter tray every day or every second day, and the list goes on. So owning a rabbit isn’t as easy as the people tell them at the fair. But of course they don’t want to scare them off. I wander how many rabbits are discarded after the novelty wears off. In all my time I have never seen rabbit burrows on Thai farms.

Well that was my trip to the New Year Fair here in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.

Brunty