Just turned in a site, phase 2 of 3 complete!! Also a reminder that this blog site is built on the same foundation as the attractive site I just posted... Maybe when all of my freelance work is done, I'll prettify this blog. Or not. This from the web designer/developer who doesn't have a portfolio site. I find myself copying and pasting in links to sites I've done into emails for prospective clients. Miracle I get any side work at all.... Now that it looks like I'll have to being a contractor with PETA, that portfolio site is looking more and more necessary.
Listening to Wolf + Lamb podcast: Click here to download or listen
Adventures have commenced as well. :-) I had randomly invited a friend to visit Chiang Mai by posting a comment on his facebook posting about a crazy night in Bangkok that resulted in free time. And he actually took me up on it. Last night, after a long day on the computer, Shazam (yes, that's his handle) rolled in my guesthouse. I wrapped up my work with PETA, put my computer in the little space above my room, under the roof, through a small, spider-web/dirt encrusted little door. Ah security. I tossed my passport, hard drive and few other valuables up there for good measure, changed outfits 3 times, put on the first makeup I've worn in two weeks and we were out on the town.
Within 20 minutes I'd seen more Chiang Mai than in the last six days. We went looking for a tourist club so Shazam could find some good, temporary lovin's and I could get my dance on. After a few missed turns and directions from a tuk-tuk driver, we walked into the basement of a huge hotel to find an enormous club, lit and ready to go (like we were), and completely empty. This was after midnight too. So what does one do? Keep walking. We quickly found what looked like another club, but on entering, it was quickly apparent this was a go-go bar, a.k.a. hooker bar. Squeezing our way past the many horny farang oogling the girls on stage and fondling the girls off stage, we found the last two seats in the house. Sucking down the most expensive 12 oz Chang beers I've ever seen, I observed, yet again, the phenomenon which is the sex trade in Thailand.
Girls looking like they were on average 18 and some even sporting braces (the rest of the girls had really nice teeth, strange to notice, but there it is) were dressed in little black thongs, a variety of stripper heels, some kind of bra, and when they went off stage, they added a see-through tie-on microskirt. Onstage there were stripper poles used only to stroke suggestively or lean on when the heels were too much. These gals didn't strip, but they danced all-right, it's what I'd call a "shimmy". Butt-out-air-grind-shimmy.
After my beer (a very short period of time), I was ready to scoot. I don't consider myself a prude, but this kind of thing gets to me after I finish my oh-my-god-what-the-hell-is-this-all-about voyeurism. I like to blame the guys, really. We catch the nearest tuk-tuk, the driver promising to take us to really good clubs. We're dumped off at MTV Spring Break International 2013 - Chiang Mai. A cluster of bars with bad and even worse music blaring out of their wall-less semi-enclosures into a gravel people-lot littered with drunk barely-post-teens on holiday. I steer Shazam away from the 20-something hotties (and after I promised not to cock block him too) and into the nearest bar with so few patrons, the bartender was missing too. When he showed back up, we ordered two huge beers, perched on stools and talked about sex, adventures, sexual adventures, and prior relationships.
Now, I've heard lots of English-speakers around Chiang Mai, but this was the first person I actually talked to and it was because he is intelligent, from Portland, a Burner, and damn smart - smart enough that it gets two nods. When the beers were done, we moved to a rasta bar with a live band featuring several horn player and a grip of college students. When that place closed down, we were determined to finally find a real club. I correctly walked us right to my doorstep, a proud moment for me, and we consulted the map before stalking off in a new direction, with a new destination.
The music told us we were close and we circled most of the block before we found the entry to a Thai-only club (thank you Nancy Chandler). I almost stopped at the door people trying to get cover charge and Shazam said, "Just walk in" so we did. And with that we're-supposed-to-be-here attitude, we walked right into a huge club full of only Thai, a live band playing pretty damn good music on stage. We naturally planted ourselves in the VIP area, bought a bottle of vodka with soda water mixer and started offering it to the gay guy next to us with a carefully arrange Flock of Seagulls hair-do. The band wrapped up their set and the DJ whose booth our drinks were sitting on, started playing.
I think we closed down the place. I don't really know much more than that about what happened next, but I woke up in my room, alone, with a colossal hangover, curable only by a BLT sandwich from Bubbles Cafe next door. And a nap immediately afterwards.
I actually managed to work today, and here it is, 1am and the motorbike I rented is 10 feet away from where I'm sitting by the pool and writing this. Tomorrow morning (8 hours from now), I meet up with Shazam for the second time, meet the girl he shacked up with after the Thai club, find out when and how the hell that happened, and take our motorbikes out on tour. I'm headed to Pai (pronounced "bye") with those two - his new girl is apparently from Pai. Might stay the night. Next blog entry, we'll all find out.