went to a fair the other day, and afterwards stopped by a communist themed barn/bar. they had some pretty good music… the t-shirts they had for sale were really weird. there was a swastika tee next to a hitler tee that read “hey, hitler?” next to a sad puppy dog tee.
peace, not war (plus a bonus capitalist puppetmaster poster):
some big portraits:
drinking under the watchful gaze of some important commie leaders and whatnot:
nice big stage:
in the bathroom at bridge bar on nimmanhamen road
warm up club/bar/venue celebrated their 11th birthday a few days ago. they had a spread of free food and booze out front, plus entertainment.
thai band:
some ladies manning the free booze tables:
free food and crafts:
dancing girl, so cute!
fire dancer:
mask dancers:
google doesn’t have any street views of thailand yet, but mapjack.com does!
you can check out chiang mai:
http://www.mapjack.com/?VmbyUZhcacxC: north gate jazz co-op
http://www.mapjack.com/?oTbyUWmcaccB: the soi i live on
http://www.mapjack.com/?mhbyUV6VacNF: warm up, bar/venue/club
http://www.mapjack.com/?GMayUskdacmA: zoe in yellow/reggae soi
http://www.mapjack.com/?K3ayUQbaacmD: (what is now) bird’s nest cafe
and pai:
http://www.mapjack.com/?4He3UDbgXcGA: the soi where edible jazz is located
http://www.mapjack.com/?oTbyUWmcaccB: bamboo bar
warm up bar had some sort of party a couple of nights ago. there was free stuff and some people were dressed up in funny costumes. the band that played was pretty decent. at some point one of the singers started bleeding from his head, i have no idea what happened and it was kind of freaky:
the female singer had a really good, really sweet voice:
autograph!
lizard napping at thc rooftop bar, across from thapae gate.
went to pai for a few days with my friend fon. pai’s a small town about 3 or 4 hours north of chiang mai, through the mountains. it was a really nice little place, though overrun by even more farang than there are in chiang mai, hah. it was still really fun, and mostly everyone was really nice.
we rented a motorboke in chiang mai for 4 days, which cost 600 baht (it would’ve cost the same for both of us to buy bus tix to/from). i really enjoyed the ride, but it killed my butt. the scenery was breathtaking! vids later.
some shots from the top of one of the mountains:
there were small herds of buffalo grazing along the roadside:
stopping for food along the way:
some spirit houses on the road side:
a road:
some shots of the pai countryside:
a farm or something:
it’s the dry season here, which means it really really dry. we got into pai after dark, and once the sun set we could see long strips of fire running up and down the mountains and along the road. the flames weren’t huge, maybe 2 or 3 feet high, but it was still pretty crazy to see the jungle on fire. you can see how dry everything is here:
china town area in pai:
a 50s/60s rock band from bangkok at bebop bar:
some guy jammin on harmonica at bamboo bar:
guitar playing at bamboo bar:
can’t remember the name of this place that we ate at a couple of times, but it had really really delicious food, plus some really comfortable seating:
and i think this is all wheat grass or something (plus you can see a spirit house to the left in the picture):
thailand has a ton of cover bands that play popular thai songs as well as western music. it’s pretty interesting, i don’t think america really has that, at least not to the extent as it is here.
here’s a band playing some thai music at this bar/club called warm up (popular amongst the young hip thai crowd, located on nimminhaemin road near the cmu convention center end of street):
a lot of businesses have set up christmas and new year’s decorations around town, and there’s been fireworks and people have been setting off paper lanterns celebrating the holidays.
fireworks from our balcony:
a little xmas tree at zoe in yellow:
a banner and some tinsel:
shaun and simon with some delicious xmas guinness at the u.n. irish pub:
yum, north gate street vendors (bitchin’ red curry):
the van that is a bar… open all night long. we’ve gone here a couple of times, and usually end up staying out until after the sun is up. it’s near the east gate:
shaun looking at some dirty playing cards, russel playing ping pong in the background:
friends:
