Traditionally, the Flower Parade is held on a Saturday morning, starting at 8 a.m. I had read almost every notice online about the starting time. This year they made a change to 4 pm. Yet the Tourism Authority of Thailand never bothered to make this announcement online beforehand. At the hotel we were staying, the tour desk executive did alert us the night before of the change but we didn't want to take any chances. So we still showed up at 8 am. Many other tourists had gathered at the Thapae Gate by then. One American was very disappointed as he had booked for an afternoon bus ride to Chiang Rai, thinking he could shoot the parade in the morning and still catch his bus. Since we were already at the Gate,we just hang around and took a few photos.