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Published: December 9th 2006
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Rasta Bar
We be jammin' PYOW! - Chiang Mai is the BOMB. After I finished my last entry, I did go and check out the rasta bar. What a wicked place!! It's all decked out Jamaican style, and every night at ten this wicked band plays reggae covers (highlights included 'The Tide Is High'). The singer is so funny, he makes all these little 'pyow' noises in between verses, and his pronunciation isn't great, but it just makes it better as far as I'm concerned. I got myself a beer and sat there by myself, just grinning away listening to the music. The guitarist was absolutely sick - I have a video but I can't figure out how to make it record sound too, which sucks, but man, you have to see this guy's fingers fly to believe it. He's a madman! After his set he came up and said hello to me and I told him I enjoyed his set, he sat down, bought me a beer and we had a good chat about music. His name's Tom and his english is pretty good. So I made my first Thai friend! I met the rest of the band, and drank a LOT... Then Tom offered
Dorky Steph & the big steps
I walked all the way up on a hangover - wucked... to take me up the top of the hill (mountain) the next day, where there is a temple (wat) and an amazing view of Chiang Mai. Little did I know that this involved riding on the back of an ancient Honda motorbike. Hahaha.
When I met him at the bar the next morning (feeling REALLY hungover) he'd brought me a helmet and stuff, which made me feel a little better hopping on the back of the bike. Seeing one and hearing about a thousand motorbike accidents and witnessing for myself the madness that is the traffic in Thailand, I was pretty nervous. But it's actually quite fun. I didn't realise how long it was going to take us to get up there though, the poor bike was struggling something chronic with the steep hills and the weight of two people on it, but all in all it was pretty fun! When we got to the top though (after about 45 minutes), I managed to burn my calf on the exhaust, so now I've got a nice blistery mark on my leg. Didn't actually realise how bad it was until I got back to my guesthouse and had a proper
Flowers & stuff
You could smell the gorgeous flowers everywhere you went - amazing look at it. Yeouch! We climbed up a MASSIVE staircase to the temple (both of us were huffing and puffing like mad and saying 'Too hungover!!' constantly), and first wandered around the sides of it to have a look at the view. It was absolutely amazing, you can understand why they built a temple up there, you really do feel like you're closer to God, whatever your version of that may be. When we were checking out the view a Thai man came up to me and started gesturing with his camera, so I thought he wanted me to take a photo of him. But no, he wanted to have a photo taken WITH me, which was kinda weird, I obliged, feeling rather confused while Tom laughed his head off at me. Odd. We walked around and I saw monks 'blessing' (I'm sure there's a word for it that's not that) people, scores of people on their knees praying reverently.. I was pretty awed actually. Tom was explaining things to me as we went along, and when we got to the other side there was a set of seven Buddhas with oil lamps below them. Tom asked me the day
Hill tribe child
She was a bit camera shy I would be leaving Chiang Mai and I told him Sunday, so he said I should make a donation to a particular Buddha for his protection and safe travel. I did, so I guess I'll be fine! We went inside the temple, luckily I'd brought a sarong and stuff cos dressed in a boob tube and shorts I wasn't exactly proper for the temple. But all was good. It's just beautiful, I can't believe that it can be that old and that intricately designed, it's totally wicked. Afterwards we went back down the staircase, I took some pictures of a cute little hilltribe girl playing on the steps, their outfits are so colourful. We went to eat as well, I had khao soi chicken which was delicious! Then we jumped back on the bike and cruised down the hill, which was a little more scary than I thought it would be because the traffic had picked up, but it was all fine.
Got back to my guesthouse feeling like I was still vibrating and with the sorest bum in the world (the roads are sort of bumpy), suddenly felt extremely tired so I went and lay down with my
Tom & POH
My new friend posing with the pig of happiness - no questions asked hahaha book, and woke up three hours later feeling decidedly groggy and regretting the khao soi chicken! Haha. Still, I sorted myself out and went to put a bit of a lining on my stomach again, then headed back to the rasta bar. Met some more really nice people - everyone is so friendly, I just can't get over it. Got talking to an American guy who said he has been coming to Chiang Mai periodically since 1993 and he has been going to that bar ever since it opened. I can see why, it's so laid back, the music is so good, the drinks are cheap, and the people are just awesome. Watched Tom's friend eating something that looked like fried crickets, he offered me some but I declined. Tom said he doesn't like them cos they itch his throat, so that was proof enough for me I wouldn't like them. They then got up and played another blinding set, highlights included a WICKED reggae version of Creep by Radiohead, Steal My Kisses by Ben Harper, Santaria by Sublime, and I Shot the Sheriff hahaha... Man it was a cool night. Better than the previous, cos there were more people
there. I asked what time the band normally played til, and was told 'Until the police come.' Hahaha. Which they did, both nights just after midnight.
The band sat around for ages afterwards and everyone was jamming on guitar, drinking heaps and just talking. I met some other travellers, this Italian girl who wouldn't stop going on about how nice Kiwis are (she was rather drunk haha) and how much she loves them, and a Dutch guy who was really reserved when I met him but got more and more out there in correllation with how many Singhs he downed. It was really funny. I even got on the guitar and played a couple of songs for them, pretty nervous but they just make you feel so comfortable and at home, it's wonderful and I've never experienced anything like it.
Woke up this morning feeling rather hungover again, actually, I think it was more like 12:30pm hahaha... Got up and went to my favourite bar (Kafe) and had a BLT for brekkie (saving my Thai fix and the inevitable Bangkok belly for tonight at the night bazaar), and here I am again. Just trying to upload some photos at the moment, so the blog should look a bit more kitted out by the end of the day. Might head off and have a bit of a jam session with the band later today, it was good playing guitar last night, I've missed it and I really do miss trusty old Jemima no matter how much she goes out of tune.
I miss you all too!
Eww, and my blister just burst. I'm sure you really wanted to know that. ;-) Time for more ointment!
Edit: I have more pics, but the computer is soooo slow and I didn't make them small enough, so there'll be more eventually. x
Edit again: Ok, so I just found out my camera has sound recording but not playback, so you can listen to Tom jammin' on guitar.
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Anne
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Love from Auntie!
Hi Steph, great to catch up on all your news on the blog and to see the photos - your writing is so good that it is almost like being there with you! The photos are great too - very professional looking! You sound to be having a ball and I feel really envious. Take care of yourself Steph - cant wait to see you next month! Love from us all, Anne, Pete, Sam and Eth xx