"Getting to know you..."

Just as in the "King and I" musical, our trip to the Siam Kingdom has been filled with getting to know all about the citizens. After our day cooking Thai style, we donned our new silk threads and took a tuk-tuk to the trendy place at Riverside Bar and Restaurant! This city is an international city, and at the Riverside, both Thai and "farang" (westerner in Thai) sit together and buy drinks, laughing and listening to the incredibly talented cover band. We watched from our intimate table in the corner outside by the river folks from every corner of this world come together and eat. A Thai girl was falling head over heels in love with her classmate who must have been from Australia or Britain. It is customary to purchase the whole bottle of spirits at this bar, along with whatever mixers you want. There's a small table where this is all kept next to your table, and magically, cute Thai boys and girls come and mix up another one of your favorite drinks before you can ask... until your bottle is gone... and you order another one. We're talking the 750 ml bottles, not your room mini-bar fare.
After soaking this all in, and having a few drinks ourselves, ordering only by the glass though, we took our tuk-tuk to our favorite local street bar. The Chillout Bar is literally down the block from our SK Guesthouse on Soi 9. You sit on the street, either at the bar or across the street with traffice flying by, listening to great tunes from BuddhaBar, Thievery Corp., and other Chill albums. The bar owners are a brother and sister team! P-Boy, the older brother, sat with us, practicing his English for when his Australian girlfriend returns in April. His beautiful sister, Nas, attracting EVERY farang boy walking or tuk-tuking by, just smiled and mixes up the drinks. So we had a great night hanging out with them and their friends, Toby and San, learning about Thai culture and life, their likes and prejudices, dreams and realities. We'll be returning tonight to sit and talk to P-Boy some more. It's been our nightly regular spot since arriving in Chiang Mai.

Ciao for now!