On day two, Sunday, and the final day of the festival, I reached the old city by around 3 pm. Our sǎwngthǎew dropped us off at one of the side entrances to the old city. It so happened that it was the staging area of some parade participants. I was delighted I could shoot so many of them who willingly posed for me.

Due to a lack of a programme written in English I only discovered, by accident, mid-way through the parade performance that there was a main “watching” area where the VIP guests were seated. The bad news was that I missed a number of the performances. The good news was that security was lax and I could therefore shoot just about anywhere I wanted.

After the parade was over I meandered on to a talent contest for young (they looked like 4-6 year old) girls and then had a grilled meat-on- stick dinner.