So last week passed by pretty much without a hitch. My 4s were happy, my 1s were happy... I still don't feel super confident about this teaching thing, but it's getting better.
We had Chiang Mai to look forward to this weekend, with some folks from Lampang coming up. Chase and Amanda were moved from Sukothai to Lampang, so they're now with Nabil and all three came to see us on Friday. We took them to walking street on Friday night (I finally got my sushi! 5 baht a piece, delicious!) for dinner and wandering. When we got back to the motel we had our now weekly hangout with the hotel manager's son, Eak (pronounced Ek) and his friends. It was a lot of fun! We had a beer run, a drink delivery, another beer run, and a snack delivery truck. By snack delivery, I mean dried flattened squid, various fish, and very thinly sliced crispy orange strips of what Eak told us was also fish. How it got to be that way is a mystery, but it was delicious. The little delivery man had a tiny charcoal grill that he used to heat the skewered squid, and then he ran it through a flattener. Really strange and interesting. It basically tasted like squid jerky.
I made a new friend that night! Eak's best friend's sister came this time, and she is a Thai kindred spirit. Chick loves to party. She ended up being our impromptu bartender, and we talked about places to go in Chiang Mai. Too bad we'll be in Bangkok this weekend, or we would be hanging out again this Friday night.
All of us got up around 930 and ate breakfast at one of our favorite places by the 7-11 before catching a songtao to Chiang Mai. We actually got off around TaPae Gate this time and began the trek to our hostel. It was a long, hot walk. We finally found it, checked in and regrouped for a bit. We caught a songtao back over to TaPae Gate and split up for a bit. Ryan, Char, Alli and I decided to hunt for food while the rest went shopping. We finally found Mexican food!
We ate at a little hole in the wall called El Diablo's Burritos. Their margaritas were almost straight Cuervo. Tried to get guacamole, learned the hard way that Thais just don't know guacamole. Nachos, however, they've got down. Obviously with homemade chips that were super thick in a delicious way.
We wandered around the rest of the day and ended up by Wororot, basically Chiang Mai's Chinatown. Lots of stuff for cheap. I bought another couple pairs of pants, one a pair of harem pants made from a pashmina scarf and a pair of cropped pants, not harem but I'm not sure what to call them.
That night we went to a bar right by TaPae Gate called Rooftop Bar. It was definitely on a roof, but it was not like the rooftop bars in Europe. You climb up all these stairs, and there was a little bar with a few more stairs leading up to a seating area. It felt like climbing on a really, really stiff trampoline, and we just sat by the wall and had a beer. The walls were painted with blacklight paint, and it was really interesting. There was a DJ, too, playing what I would normally think of as club music. But it wasn't a club... no dancing, just floor seating around a bunch of squat tables.
After that we caught a songtao to a bar/club called Warm Up Cafe. It had about 6 different rooms, and we started off in one of the techno/dance rooms. I started getting a headache from the endless crazy strobe-y lights and left the room, and I am super glad I did. About 10 minutes after, as I was standing beside one of the other bars, a band started up. I thought at first from her voice that the lead singer was a man. She also had her hair covering her face for much of the first song so it took me a little while to decipher that she was just a deep/slightly raspy voiced chick. I have no idea what the name of the band was, or anything she said in between songs, but their entire set was Kings of Leon, MCR, Two Door Cinema Club, Nirvana, etc. Truthfully, I'm not sure of what she said during most of the songs either, as between her engrish and the band being loud, she was a little drowned out. But the band was so good I really didn't care and just sang along.
We made it back to the hostel around 3, I think. The next morning, we all caught a songtao over to the Irish Pub that James took us to last week. Well, almost all of us did. Heather and Mariah were off petting tigers, and Nabil decided once he got on the songtao that it would be a good idea to jump off as it was moving because he thought he forgot a charger. The rest of us had a great breakfast in which we realized that getting used to Thai food meant we were no longer used to heavy American/English food. It was delicious though!
Well, that was my weekend. Will post more in a few days before we head to BANGKOK!!!!
We had Chiang Mai to look forward to this weekend, with some folks from Lampang coming up. Chase and Amanda were moved from Sukothai to Lampang, so they're now with Nabil and all three came to see us on Friday. We took them to walking street on Friday night (I finally got my sushi! 5 baht a piece, delicious!) for dinner and wandering. When we got back to the motel we had our now weekly hangout with the hotel manager's son, Eak (pronounced Ek) and his friends. It was a lot of fun! We had a beer run, a drink delivery, another beer run, and a snack delivery truck. By snack delivery, I mean dried flattened squid, various fish, and very thinly sliced crispy orange strips of what Eak told us was also fish. How it got to be that way is a mystery, but it was delicious. The little delivery man had a tiny charcoal grill that he used to heat the skewered squid, and then he ran it through a flattener. Really strange and interesting. It basically tasted like squid jerky.
I made a new friend that night! Eak's best friend's sister came this time, and she is a Thai kindred spirit. Chick loves to party. She ended up being our impromptu bartender, and we talked about places to go in Chiang Mai. Too bad we'll be in Bangkok this weekend, or we would be hanging out again this Friday night.
All of us got up around 930 and ate breakfast at one of our favorite places by the 7-11 before catching a songtao to Chiang Mai. We actually got off around TaPae Gate this time and began the trek to our hostel. It was a long, hot walk. We finally found it, checked in and regrouped for a bit. We caught a songtao back over to TaPae Gate and split up for a bit. Ryan, Char, Alli and I decided to hunt for food while the rest went shopping. We finally found Mexican food!
We ate at a little hole in the wall called El Diablo's Burritos. Their margaritas were almost straight Cuervo. Tried to get guacamole, learned the hard way that Thais just don't know guacamole. Nachos, however, they've got down. Obviously with homemade chips that were super thick in a delicious way.
We wandered around the rest of the day and ended up by Wororot, basically Chiang Mai's Chinatown. Lots of stuff for cheap. I bought another couple pairs of pants, one a pair of harem pants made from a pashmina scarf and a pair of cropped pants, not harem but I'm not sure what to call them.
That night we went to a bar right by TaPae Gate called Rooftop Bar. It was definitely on a roof, but it was not like the rooftop bars in Europe. You climb up all these stairs, and there was a little bar with a few more stairs leading up to a seating area. It felt like climbing on a really, really stiff trampoline, and we just sat by the wall and had a beer. The walls were painted with blacklight paint, and it was really interesting. There was a DJ, too, playing what I would normally think of as club music. But it wasn't a club... no dancing, just floor seating around a bunch of squat tables.
After that we caught a songtao to a bar/club called Warm Up Cafe. It had about 6 different rooms, and we started off in one of the techno/dance rooms. I started getting a headache from the endless crazy strobe-y lights and left the room, and I am super glad I did. About 10 minutes after, as I was standing beside one of the other bars, a band started up. I thought at first from her voice that the lead singer was a man. She also had her hair covering her face for much of the first song so it took me a little while to decipher that she was just a deep/slightly raspy voiced chick. I have no idea what the name of the band was, or anything she said in between songs, but their entire set was Kings of Leon, MCR, Two Door Cinema Club, Nirvana, etc. Truthfully, I'm not sure of what she said during most of the songs either, as between her engrish and the band being loud, she was a little drowned out. But the band was so good I really didn't care and just sang along.
We made it back to the hostel around 3, I think. The next morning, we all caught a songtao over to the Irish Pub that James took us to last week. Well, almost all of us did. Heather and Mariah were off petting tigers, and Nabil decided once he got on the songtao that it would be a good idea to jump off as it was moving because he thought he forgot a charger. The rest of us had a great breakfast in which we realized that getting used to Thai food meant we were no longer used to heavy American/English food. It was delicious though!
Well, that was my weekend. Will post more in a few days before we head to BANGKOK!!!!
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