His Majesty the King of Thailand celebrated his 80th birthday during June 2008 and as part of the worldwide celebration there was a festival held in Trafalgar Square to celebrate Thai culture and food. This was the first ever Thai festival in the square and was seen to be successful. Normally the festival is held every year in Battersea Park but was moved for this special occasion. With Lanna drums, Thai dancers, and a puppet show were performed by the Londond based Thai Dance Academy and Thai Music Circle but to perform the martial art Muay Thai the boxers were flown in from Thailand.

Thai food was available to the uninitiated but with over 1700 Thai restaurants in the UK, if you haven’t tried Thai food already you would probably be in a minority. On offer from the stalls was the famous pad thai (stir-fried Thai noodles) and kaeng khiew wan gai (green chicken curry) as well as food carving demonstrations.

I wasn’t aware of this event, held on June the 14^th, but would have liked to have been there if only to have witnessed the Thai ambassador Kitti tell the crowd, “There’s scientific proof that Thai rice makes you sleep better and smile. You should have enough rice and when you’re back home, smile at your family members.”