8 am-rise and shine...it's another beautiful scorching hot day in Chiang Mai and by the time my feet land on the first floor I'm drenched in sweat. Nikki and I make our way to our usual coffee spot, catching up with friends and family on skype and sipping on our lattes and tea.
12 pm-Stomachs a rumbling, we make our way to lunch and then head in to our internship. Today is a day like any other, we've got our routine down. After our meeting we finish up some work and prepare to end the day, when we are told we get to go on outreach!
5 pm-Outreach. Split into groups of two, we head out to the bars to talk to the women who are working that night. We take sips of our sodas and attempt at using our conversational Thai...which is nit noi (little). Building friendships with these women is essential and our organization is doing an amazing job at it. As the more women come in, so do a few "johns." After inviting the women to a few events at the Garden we pay for our drinks and hug the owner goodbye. Meeting back up with the team we pray for one another and for the women.
8 pm-Nikki and I are sitting around the guest house deciding where to go to eat, when she closes her eyes and points to the map...that's where we shall go. We bargain with the tuk-tuk driver and after a few minutes he finally agrees to our offer of 50 baht (less than $2). Our new adventure lands us on a quaint little dirt road lined with motor bikes. It is now almost 9 and we are starving..we grab some not so good/not so bad Indian food and continue our night.
9 pm-Zoe in Yellow is one of the most delightful cafe/bars I have ever been in. The live band invites you into a quaint room constructed of wooden floors and soft yellow walls, which are illuminated by the soft glow of candles. Old leather sofas sit upon these dusted floors decorated with floral pillows. A cool breeze fills the room from the antique metal fans, tempting you to stay longer. Reminiscent of the beloved Frenchmen street in New Orleans, Zoe's feels like home.
10 pm-While I was throughly enjoying people watching at Zoe in Yellow, the sound of reggae music was calling. Roots, Rocks, Reggae is almost as awesome as their band. Eight Thai musicians on one nit noi stage, makes for a awesome performance. Bell bottom jeans, fro-like hair, and sweet hats, what's not to love! I was ready to dance my butt off, but Nikki would not accompany me on the dance floor. This was probably for the best. While it was a lively young crowd, there were a few old farang men sitting off in the corner, their unwanted eyes staring at who ever got up to dance. But as soon as they left I did get Nikki up to dance for the very last song. Success.
11:30 pm- Nikki and I were getting a bit sleepy...yes, 11:30 is now late for us. We strolled our way to the street, when we ran into Chris (we sat in on a few of his classes at Payap University...I had also previously met him in Chicago at an young leaders conference...small world huh?!). The three of us talked for awhile and then he invited us to meet up with a few of his friends who were two doors down. While very tired, we did want to make friends our age and were curious about what Thai students do on with their weekend nights. We pushed sleep aside and went to Cafe Del Sol. We formerly introduced ourselves to some of the girls we had seen in the classes and listened to another great band (they played Ben Harper and I love them for it). Children continued to try and sell us flowers...I was finally pressured, by and adorable 5 year old, to by his purple lei.
Our entertainment continued by an amazing fire dancer. Spinning the fire on his back the light from the flames revealed tattoos covering his whole body. Wow.
1:30 am-As I thought the night was winding down, it was only truly beginning. Chris invited us to meet up with a few more friends from Payap. Some how we happened to find the next destination...quite a miracle since he only speaks a little more Thai than we do and his phone died. It's funny how in the states I am so attached to my phone and rely on it to get the directions to any place I want to go...here you somehow magically appear at where you need to be. Introductions were made once again and Nikki and I fell in love with his Thai friend Pak. While very much Thai, he has the sarcasm of an American...making for hilarious comments that you would not expect. Needless to say Nikki and I couldn't stop laughing. The name of this lavish red and white establishment is unknown to us since it was written in Thai...I think we were the only farang in there.
2 am-They turned on the lights and were closing up shop, leaving us to making yet another decision on where to go what to do. While still very tired we were throughly enjoying the company of new friends. Nikki and I concluded that it was one night without sleep...we could sleep tomorrow. Fabrique here we come!
2:30 am-Fabrique...where to begin. HOLY STROBE LIGHTS! Padded with white leather walls and black and white checkered floors, Fabrique is close to a fun house. There are three locations to choose from, the outside chill space, with huge pillows and low standing tables, the techno room with strobe lights and ridiculously loud music, and the main room with a live band. I don't know if I'm cut out for the Thai night scene...I felt like an 80 year old women trapped inside a 21 year old body.
Once we moved away from the strobe lights and into the band room I felt a little more at ease. A concoction of 80's pop and today's emo-punk were rocking out on stage...decked out with skinny jeans, spiky hair, sunglasses that could possibly be from star trek, and the keytar...this band was pretty much awesome. We danced, of course and kept laughing to ourselves about our random night with the Thais.
3:30 am-Exhausted from sweating and dancing Nikki and I decided to finally call it a night. Sore from working out, dancing, and lack of sleep climbing the 5 flights of stairs up to our room never felt so difficult.
I think what made this night so great was that we were completely sober...laying in bed reliving our random night we couldn't stop laughing.
re-cap:
Outreach to the bars in the red light district
Quaint cafe that played a mixture of jazz music and had a DJ
Thai reggae band geared up in 70's dress
Fire dancers
Crazy Thai music at a place I cannot pronounce
Fun house like club with techno music, 80's/punk band
This was our Friday night.
4 am-sleep.
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