Number 28

Yesterday morning I got an email from the people at the University in Hanoi asking for a complete outline of my proposed itinerary for the Vietnam trip. Apparently some government official, who would have no idea what any of it means, needs to approve it even though I had been told my trip had been finally cleared. I had to submit a list of meetings and topics, an outline of my proposals for the Clinic in general and a basic overview of everything the Clinic would ultimately be doing when up and running. So I spent all day putting together the necessary paperwork and squeezed in a walk to the Market to get groceries. The Vietnamese had requested that I email my "results" by no later then 6 pm so I did and my trip to the Chai Blues House was still on.

Corn's fiance Jay, who I've become friends with, has friends in from home (England) who wanted to go hear some blues so they met Moon and me at the club. I had hoped Moon would come along as I was driving and wasn't sure how to get back to the Club. We tried to get Ei Ei to come with us but I think she's a little afraid of the whole concept of Western music and clubs and nightlife in general. Ei Ei is the newest addition to the house. She's from Burma. I think she's a little overwhelmed being here as it's her first trip away from home. She's here for 6 months to teach English at the elementary school (she speaks better then a lot of Americans) and study law at the University. She's very nice but is still a bit intimidated by the big city.

We got to the club at 9, since we had been told the music would start then, and were greeted again by Chai. He's a really nice guy and we talked gear some more since the rest of his band hadn't shown up yet. He had brought in a 1947 Premier tube amp with the original tubes to show me and I was extremely impressed. (it's like he brought in a 1947 Mercedes with all original equipment) It turns out that even though he is a foot taller then any Thai I've seen and speaks English with no trace of an accent, he's actually Thai. We found a table and waited for the bass player and drummer to show up. They shuffled in around 9:30 and were greeted with smiles rather then annoyance as I would imagine would have happened in an American bar. The club is new and quite nice with a very laid back atmosphere. We had drinks and some appetizers and, since there were new people who didn't know each other we filled the time talking about where everyone was from, what they did, etc.

The band started playing around 10. Chai is quite the guitar player. They played a 45 minute set of various blues tunes including a really nice version of Little Wing which is one of my all time favorites. There was a nice crowd and the band was well received. They took a 5 minute break which lasted 30 minutes and came back for another really good set which included Everyday I Have The Blues, some Stevie Ray Vaughn and ended with a killer version of Red House. Moon and Corn both enjoyed the music as did the Brits and I had a great time. The music was done for the night and we headed back to the BABSEA house. Between the Reggae club, the Jazz club and the Blues club I've gone out more to hear music in a month here then I have in years at home. I think I'll need to remedy that when I return.

A good day and a really good night in Chiang Mai.