Best Day Ever Part II

Let me just start of by saying I am physically exhausted right now after my first day of class. My legs are like noodles and my brain is sopmewhat fried. It was a really good day and I learned a TON but I am absolutely spent. So, if there are strangely spelled words or slightly incoherent sentences (more than usual anyway) that would be why.

On our van ride back from our trek Sanghay was asking us a lot of questions, among them, whether or not we have red bull back in the US. We all told him that we do and often it's combined with vodka for neverending good times. He said they did the same thing here in Thailand but with Lao Kao-Thai moonshine.

When we got back to our place I was pretty tired but decided to swing by the peppermint to check my email and eat something. I ended up at a table with Allie, Avery, Robbie (one of the owners) and Tuppany (the other owner/Robbie's wife/cook/waitress). I thought I'd have just one beer and call it a night. Most of you know that promising yourself just one beer is an invitation for an endless night of drinking way too much. I believe this subject was touched upon in an Onion article a few years ago (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31028) They had just sent one of the other waiters out to get a bottle of Lao Kao so we could all have a taste. In the meantime I sipped on my "one beer". The waitress came back with the goods and TUppany poured us eacha shot. It smelled like bad tequila but was completely clear. I took a sip....it went down sooooo smooth. This is a liquor I can actually drink and enjoy. Damn. Allie reminded us all that Sanhay had said one shot feels like about 4 beers so I nursed my shot and had some more beer as well.

Some more people from our group showed up over time and all had a little (or a large) taste of the moonshine. 1 Hour, 1 shot, and a few beers later Avery, Todd, Gina, Michaela and I were ready to go out...or go out more anyway. We headed towards a strip of bars that have live music every night, usually reggae and one place we found covered rock/grunge/punk music from teh 90s. But the first place we went to was a bar with a Thai reggae cover band with the lead singer Afroman. He is also a tattoo artist who worked on Avery earlier that day. Afroman is a very tall and robust Thai man with a giant afro. I've never seen anything like it, it was awesome.

The bar was pretty cool. All outside with a swing hanging from a tre and a fire pit. Now, listening to Thai people try and sing american songs/lyrics is really entertaining especially when you know all the actual words. And for some reason it's even funnier when they're trying to sing reggae music. While we were listening to the music a little Thai girl came around selling flower necklaces for 10 baht (about 25 cents). Gina and I decided to buy one cause why we couldn't think why not and they were pretty and she was adorable. After we purchased our necklaces she hung around and took a liking to Gina who thought she was so cute she gave the little girl the bracelet she had just purchased from one of the Hill tribes earlier that day. The little girl then turned to me and tried to get me to buy another necklace. I pointed to the one I was wearing and said no, I already have one from you. She promptly kicked me in the shine and ran away. What the heck crazy little hustling Thai girl!?!

She ended up coming back to see us and tried to get my bracelet ewhich I promptly took off and hid in my bag. After which Gina took hers back. I know what you're thinking, how can you take back a bracelet from a cute little Thai girl? When she kicks you or someone you know in the shin all bets are off, that's how. Regardless she still followed us around the rest of the night --to the 90s cover band bar and to the other reggae cover bar.

After that I headed out. That little girl was too damn sketchy and reggae music isn't my favorite, even when sung in poor English by a Thai man with a fro.

So there you have it folks, reggae and moonshine. I'm working on a way to ship back about a dozen bottles of that stuff to the states to have it analyzed and then mass produced.

I'm about a day behind right now but hopefully I'll catch up tomorrow.

Hope all is well with all of you!
Sawat dee ka
Andrea