Chiang Mai, Thailand, is known as the Rose of the North, but it really blooms into life in early February, towards the end of the cool season. Every year on the first weekend of February, the Chiang Mai Flower Festival exhibitions open. The Flower Festival Parade starts on Saturday morning. The parade lines up along Charoen Muang Road, all the way up from the Nawarat Bridge to the train station. At 8 am the parade begins to move. After passing the viewing stand the parade moves up Tha Pae Road to Tha Pae Gate and then turns left and follows the moat round to Suan Buak Haad.
