The schools were closed. As was the post office. Some people took the day off work. Business went on as usual at Emergency. Except for a request, from staff, for ice cream (still haven’t figured that out; it was turned down).
But elsewhere, flowers were handed out, festivities got under way on both sides of the river, and I, walking back into town from the Peace Book Center, quite by chance stumbled across what was arguably the most colorful game around: musicians, Apsara dancers, incense and prayers drawing in the crowds at the base of the Ta Dambong (grandfather stick) statue.
Healing Pilgrim 