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The little yellow flags seen everywhere around town means it Vegetarian Food Festival time, and they will soon be replaced with rainbow flags in Bangkok and Pattaya as the gay festivals in both cities reach their climax for 2004!

The Vegetarian Food Festival is a great chance to try some interesting new food even if you are not a vegetarian or are not into the spiritual side of the festival - Bangkok's Chinatown area is full of interesting things to eat, and everywhere that possibly can is getting in on the act - one of the ice cream parlours is Silom Rd is offering a "guaranteed vegetarian sundae" if you have a sweet tooth, and even the food cart in my soi that sells corn on the cob is flying a yellow flag! Down Phuket way and in some Isarn villages they get uo to even more bizare things with knives abd body piercing - not for those with weak stomachs!

The rainbow flags will be out in full force from now till mid-November in Bangkok with Bangkok Pride Week 2004 being celebrated 14 - 21 November. The fun gets underway this month with the Loy Nava lunch cruise on Sunday October 24 - always a popular event, then the sporting competitions get underway starting November 6. The week officially starts with "Pride in the Park" in Lumpini Park on Sunday November 14. This is the 4th year for this event and there will be the usual sports, lucky draws, games, information booths and food and drink. The will also be the "Sexy Swimsuit" competition, sponsored once again by Dragoncastle - this was very popular and raise a lot of money last year, so don't miss it this year, 2:00 PM poolside!

During Pride Week itself there are sports and other events and parties almost every day or night, culminating the pride parade on Sunday 21 November. This is the 6th year that a gay parade has been held in Bangkok, each year drawing a good crows, and the organisers of this years parade are working hard to ensure this is the biggest and best parade yet! And post parade in Silom Soi 2 & 4 is usually one of the busiest and best nights of the year, but people always seen to find the energy to party on again at the Soi 4 Overtime Party on the Monday night! Full details of pride events are in the calendar her and on the official Bangkok Pride website.

But don't put your rainbow flag away after pride week winds down, just take it down to Pattaya - the Pattaya Gay Festival 2004 final parade and parties will be a frenetic 4 days from November 29 - December 2. Getting things underway this month are events at BoyzBoyzBoyz and Le Cafe Royale, then Mister PGF at Throb/Splash on 11 November. Once again the beach party at Jomtien starts the finale on 29 November, then Miss PGF is on at BoyzBoyzBoyz on 30 November. On Sunday December 1 the gay community joins the local World AIDS Day parade through the center of Pattaya, then the fun continues with dinner at Bruno's on Monday and the final Boyztown Street Party on December 2. This year has already been a huge fundraising success and after the final events there should be a record amount to be distributed to the PGF charities. Full details are in the calendar here and on the PGF web site.

And of course it doesn't end there - you will need to have a quite Christmas and New Year to be ready to party on in Phuket in February - the Phuket Gay Festival 2005 is on from 3 - 6 February - see the calendar here and the festival page at Gay Patong

But all is not just gay festivals - for all the latest venue changes and events as they happen see the calendar here and the directory listings.