Number 40

It's Sunday morning and I didn't write last night because we got back late. The day was quiet and beautiful. High 70's with a light breeze and a few big billowy clouds that slowly floated by. I sat outside reading the revisions from the students in Vietnam and listening to my iPod. The students are funny. They've made a few very minor changes to some of the forms but they insist on translating them back into English and sending them to me for my "approval". Moon stopped by to use the computer late in the afternoon and, as is often the case, a plan was made to go find dinner with whoever was around. This time it was Ronnie and Ei Ei and we decided to go to the Night Bazaar. I have a couple of gifts I still want to find and the Night Bazaar has infinite possibilities for food and gifts.

Ei Ei is a bit scared of the car, or maybe my driving, so we walked up to the main street and caught a red truck. Apparently the Xmas effect is over as the Night Bazaar was hopping. We wandered through the shops so I could find just the right gift for my Mother. (the following is rated R) Walking by stall after stall I couldn't find just the right thing and then, as I came around a corner, there it was! A hand carved wooden elephant. So what, you say. There are thousands of hand carved wooded elephants in the Night Bazaar. True, but this one had a pronounced erection! It was standing on it's hind legs and had been positioned right behind another elephant. I was pretty sure my Mother didn't have one but in the final analysis I decided it would be too "hard" to get it home. Kind of gives new meaning to the term "having wood"!! (OK, we now resume the G rated content)

Ronnie and Moon stopped at a jewelry stand and were looking at rings. It's way too early for that but they were having fun. We looked around for about an hour but didn't find anything that really caught my eye, (happy elephant aside) so we decided to eat. Deciding to forgo the McDonalds, the Burger King and the Subway, we walked to the large Thai food court and surveyed the possibilities. I try to eat Thai food wherever we go so I chose a really nice looking falafal from one of the vendors. It was really good. It was here that Moon began her evening eating which became an ongoing situation. She started with a rice and vegetable meal and then decided she wanted french fries. That was followed by fried mango. It was a lot of food. I jokingly asked her if she was still hungry at which point she got up and came back with 4 huge skewers of pork balls. (no, not those kind of balls, but ground up pork in a spicy sauce).

As she was finishing the pork balls we heard the beginning of some kind of performance starting on a stage at the other end of the food court. We moved over and found a table in front so we could watch. It was a dance troupe, dressed in traditional costumes, who did a number of dances from different regions of Thailand. The troupe consisted of two women and four ladyboys. Ladyboys is a descriptive and non-derogatory term for men who dress up like women. There are a fair number of them in Chiang Ma and, in most cases, you have to look really close to tell that they're not women. That was not the case with this group. The narrator would explain the dance in Thai and then in English. The English translation was pretty amusing as at one point the narrator said the people did the dance to try to bring "brains". We think she may have meant "rain". So the lady boys danced badly with full makeup, long fingernails and hairy legs. Ei Ei and Moon loved it and Ronnie and I tried really hard not to laugh. When the show ended we applauded wildly along with everyone else and headed off for more shopping.

Moon hadn't eaten in at least 45 minutes so we stopped for some kind of fried thing involving fish that I passed on. We walked a few feet and she needed to stop for something that looks like ice cream but isn't very sweet. I was done shopping, having found nothing that struck my fancy, so we headed for the street. When we got there we found Moon's favorite Rotee stand so it was to be Rotee for everyone. Rotee is like a crepe. They make it right there in a little rolling stand while you wait. It's really good but the lines are really long because they're all made from scratch. It was really crowded, the Hill women were all over us, and every other non-Thai to buy their trinkets, and the line wasn't moving so we decided to leave. Moon reluctantly agreed and we headed to the street to find a red truck home. We decided to walk a little and ran right into a Rotee stand that wasn't busy. Moon ordered a banana Rotee with no egg and we all had some. Then she ordered a banana and raisin one. Then she ordered a banana and honey one. Then she ordered another banana only. Then she switched to a smaller hand held version and ordered 4 of those. Ronnie called her a "Chazer" and listening to a black man in Chiang Mai call a thin Thai woman a Chazer just kind of set me off. I finally stopped laughing and Ronnie explained the whole thing to Moon and Ei Ei. They both said Chazer several times to try to learn the pronunciation and I had another round of laughing.

We decided to walk some more rather then grab a red truck so that we could walk off some of the food we had eaten. As we got to the Tapeh Gate of the Old City we heard music and saw there was a huge stage set up in the plaza and a band was playing. Between us and the stage was a large collection of little stalls, like at state fair so we stopped to see if there were any interesting souvenirs. As we got closer we realized that all these stalls (about 50) were food vendors. A lot of the food looked really good and Moon started eating again. The rest of us were full but she was unstoppable. After she ate a chicken schwarma, some kind of salad and another ice cream, we headed over to see the music.

I can't adequately describe how bizarre the music was. It was a 7 piece band of rock type instruments. Some adults and some teenagers. They were all dressed in traditional Hill tribe clothes but they were playing pop music. There were 4 kids, also decked out in conservative, traditional Hill tribe clothes, singing and dancing in front of the band. It was like the Osmonds meet Britany Spears, meet the Backstreet Boys, meet Hill tribe people. Standing there watching it the incongruity of it was hilarious. Ronnie and I kept looking at each other and shaking our heads while again trying not to laugh. At the end they brought out another 6 little kids and they all sang We Are The World, in English (complete with heavy accents and getting the words wrong). That was all Ronnie and I could take and we fell out.

It was after 11 so we decided to head back to the house. I had decided to walk. It was a beautiful night and I love walking in Chiang Mai so even though it was a few miles, I was happy to do it. Everyone decided to walk with me to try to work off some of the food we had eaten and off we went. Moon was pretty good and we only stopped at another Rotee stand and one 7-11 on the walk back.

The walk back had two interesting little notes. First there was a sign that seemed to say "No Trumpets". It actually was a trumpet in a circle with the line across it. It was on the street right by a no parking sign. We looked at it for awhile and tried to figure out what else it could mean or represent but it clearly was a trumpet so, reluctantly, we left without playing our trumpets. About 5 minutes later we walked by two policemen who were standing outside their truck and watching as people walked by. Ronnie and I were walking in front and we smiled and gave a little head bow and they returned the smile and the bow. I turned to Ronnie and said I bet that was the first time he walked by the police on a public street after midnight and didn't get stopped. We started laughing and tried to explain to Moon and Ei Ei what we were laughing about but they couldn't understand why American police would stop black people for no reason or why we would think that was funny. Good for them!

We got back to the house after midnight and Ei Ei went right to bed. It had been a big night for her. She's still intimidated by the big city and all that she sees but she is trying her best to experience it all. (although her eyes got huge and her mouth dropped open when we walked the three blocks through the prostitute area) Moon and Ronnie and I sat outside and relaxed for awhile then I figured it was time to leave the two of them alone and went inside.

A slow day but a fun night in Chiang Mai. I won't have too many more and I'll miss this place, but it feels like it's almost time to go home. Tomorrow I go to Vientiane, but today we watch the Monk burning. The head Monk from the Temple in our neighborhhod died and they've been building up to this for a week. They have speakers on the utility poles near the house and have been broadcasting prayers daily. There's been a lot of building and preparation going on at the Wat (temple) and apparently this is a big deal. As you know we don't burn a lot of Monks in Minnesota so I'm looking forward to this experience....