Thai Festival

Melbourne is known as the culture capital of Australia, though as I mentioned in earlier posts there really isn't much racial diversity here. When I asked an Aussie friend about this paradox he said that it is true that Melbourne is the culture capital and it is simultaneously true that there is no diversity, because Aussie culture is white.
As racism is a big issue that Australia is currently facing, I was excited to see the celebration of Thai culture in the 8th Annual Thai food and culture festival at Federation Square.

A Thai festival not only meant that my new beloved home was embracing a non-white culture. It also (and more importantly) meant cheap amazing food, music, dancing, swordfighting and cooking demos!

Five things an ignorant American (like myself) can learn at a Thai festival:

Thai people bless and celebrate water

Thai dance contains elements similar to classical Indian dance and classical Chinese dance. Costumes are elaborate. These have tails. The six inch brass finger pieces are unique. They curl away from the hand and are used to accentuate the traditional hand gestures and movements.

Thai girls are beautiful. Thai beauty pageants are boring as hell. I left after 3 of the 13 girls were presented. Thai beauty pageant contestants wear high heels that are so tall and spiky, they should be registered as weapons.

Taro sticky rice looks like moldy porridge but tastes like heaven.

Pretty Thai girls do not like dancing with sketchy drummer boys. The girl on the front left plastered a fake smile on the whole time because creepydrummerboy (downstage right) was all up in her grill while she was trying to dance. She was a pretty dancer, but she looked so miserable.

At the end of the festival, there was a raffle to determine which audience member would win round trip tickets to Bangkok. 

Guess who didn't win.

I don't have the time or money to get over to Thailand yet, so I'm glad that Thailand came to me! It is a beautiful culture and I hope to go in the near future.