When I attended the local Carnival in the rural village of Boklua located in Northern Thailand’s Nan Province, it brought back wonderful memories of my childhood and I had terrific time.

The Carnival was a fundraiser for the local medical clinic, so all the monies went to a good cause. A variety of novel games were going on, including one which involved tossing rings on coke bottles. I played one game but failed miserably as my throws were way off the mark.

Another game was drawing quite a crowd and generating a lot of excitement (and noise) so I moved in that direction. Moving closer to the scene, I could see many people gathered around a small makeshift ring with chutes around the circumference. Suddenly, a young lady appeared and jumped into the ring, collecting bets from the frenzied spectators. The bets were in denomination of 5 baht. Not knowing what was going on, at first, I thought it was some version of the old crab race game.

Boy, I was way off base. I finally realized what was happening, when a young man let loose a small furry critter out ofa thick bamboo tube – the critter was a mouse. The little mouse scurried around the pit for a bit, accompanied by banging sticks and the clamor of the crowd, before dodging into one of the marked chutes. I had never seen anything like this before and I had good laugh.

Caught in the Spirit of the Carnival, I decided to make some bets on the next contest. First go-around, I selected only two chutes and I lost; 2nd time around, I selected 8 out of the 12 possible chutes. Pretty good odds, if you ask me! Needless to say, the little mouse dashed into chute #6 – which was one of the many that I bet on, so I came up a big winner.

My prize? It was a bag of sunflower chips which I later gave to a young lad who worked at my hotel. Who said that “an old fart” like me couldn’t have any fun in Thailand?