Through the smoke I could see that the dead were rising. Zombies shuffled towards me in zig-zag lurches. Behind them – massive, glittering and carpeted in marigolds, were floats. Sitting high on one was a woman, dressed like a royal Thai princess in luxurious pha biang silk shawls, her head topped with a glittering mirror-mosaic crown. She smiled and waved at the crowds.
One of the zombies – a giant, brandishing a sword and wearing Ray Bans, caught sight of me.
“Farang!’ he shouted, grinning broadly and nudging his friend, “Farang! Welcome to Nakhon!”
Foreigners – or farangs, as they are locally known – aren’t usually a curiosity in Thailand. But they do tend to stick to the country’s main travel hubs, whizzing between Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the islands on domestic flights. On every previous trip to the country, I’d done the same. But things had changed. Sitting in my…
