A Night Out in Chiang Mai

As part of what has become almost a daily ritual, we went for a meander through the night markets (more about those in another blog entry). This time we decided to turn left at the main street instead of right and explored some new areas of Chiang Mai. We didn't end up buying anything but stumbled across an entertainment area. It was a like a dead-end street lined with bars. We figured we may as well stop into one of the bars (when I say bar I mean there is a bar and about 4 seats at it!) called Piggy Bar.

We played a few games of pool (the longest ever) and were convinced that either the balls were slightly warped, the table was wonky or we are really clever and can put lots of spin on the ball!!! The bar lady was really friendly and we got to talking to her. She told us about her family and Thailand and then she started talking about lady boys. "They are prettier than us!". We thought, is she referring to what we think she is? Short answer=YES!

Soon some loud music started blaring from the stage next to the bar and she pulled us outside and said "Look, lady boys". And there we saw some very glamorous "ladies" on stage doing a choreographed dance while one mimed into a microphone. But something just didn't look right. The bar lady told us that most of them have had the full operation! Ai Karumba. But I did agree with her, they were very pretty. I don't know many Aussie blokes who could pull it off as well as these Thai dudes. After about 15 minutes of costume changes and singing and dancing, the "ladies" started to wander through the crowds. One "lady" said to Jono in a very deep voice, "Would you like a photo?". He had to try and control his natural reaction to giggle and said yes. So, we "made a picture with them", (as the Thai would say). It was hilarious.

The show continued on after the short interval but we had seen enough and broke into the games that were on one of the tables outside the bar. First we played Connect 4, and Jono won every time. Then we played Jenga, that was a lot of fun. Last of all the lady brought out a tangram puzzle. By this stage we had had a few drinks and did not quite have the focus to solve any of the shapes!

Next we started heading home when Jono noticed a wine tent of the University of Chiang Mai selling a variety of wine by the glass. The strawberry wine especially caught his attention, so we stopped for a drink. There were 3 customers there already, sitting on small stools, who recommended their favourite flavours. We pulled up some stalls next to them and started chatting (and drinking) away. We met Nathan from Australia, Melissa from Canada and her fiance Ronald from France. We were happily sitting and drinking until the lady informed us that the wine was all gone and she started to pack up her stall. We were all buzzing quite nicely so we moved on to another bar.

At our new resting place we were soon being hassled by little kids trying to sell us flower necklaces and roses. Closely behind them was a woman who had a basket of her own nick knacks to flog off. We had already bought some earlier and were not going to buy any more. Soon the kids lost interest ans just started having fun! They were really cute kids, but I felt for them having to be out at all hours of the night working.

We crept into the hotel at 2:30 am. A great time was had by all.