What happens in Chiang Mai...

Apparently doesn't stay in Chiang Mai because I'm posting an entry about last night's good times. I'm going a bit out of order, still haven't caught up on posting about events that happened earlier but this one is fresh in my somewhat cloudy brain, so here goes.

Yesteday was one of my teammate's birthday. After having about 300 Thai people enthusiastically sing "Happy Birthday" to her, replete with a nice cake, during the Rotary District Conference banquet, some of us decided--well, the birthday gal decided--to go out to celebrate. Fortunately, our Thai counterparts, the Rotary GSE team coming to Illinois next month, is here and we're buddies with them. And one of them is a native of Chiang Mai, has a car, knows where to go, and all that.

Our party crew consisted of the birthday gal, who happens to be 6'2" and is frequently gawked at and complimented by Thai people. Humorously, many compare her to "Natalie," who apparently is the current Miss Universe, is really tall, and is pale-skinned. I've never seen a picture of her. Actually, it's disturbing how much many Thai people prefer fair skin to dark skin and how much they appear to enjoy beauty pageants but that's another story. So we had the birthday gal and me and our so-called "team leader," who is a 64-year old, white real estate agent from Peoria ('nuff said). And our four Thai GSE counterparts, who are women in their late 20s to late 30s and lots of fun.

We went to a place called Hot Shot, which I think is in a hotel. At first, we were the only ones there, it was way loud, and the birthday gal and I were trying to figure out where we might go next. But, sho'nuff, the place filled up over the next hour, and the DJ turned it over to a band, which played a long set and then turned it back to the DJ and so on.

The band was crazy. Four pieces, pretty subdued. The highlights were the singers, who changed every song among about five different singers (3 or 4 women, a few dudes). Each new song brought not only a new singer but a change in clothes! And these clothes were outrageous: think 80s style, via Japan, via Thailand, via slutty. Mostly, they sang Thai songs though there were a few songs familiar to those of us in the US/West, admittedly with different pronunciation of the words. The music wasn't great but it did pump up the volume and had a beat, if somewhat monotonous. Most of us danced and a good number of other people were, especially some groups of Thai women.

The audience was maybe crazier. The birthday gal was about the only white/foreign woman there. There were a decent number of white/foreign men, many of whom were older than me. And there were a lot of Thai women, most of whom were wearing very provocative, sexy clothing. All of the foreign men, just about, had a Thai woman by his side, and frequently groped them. How many of these of these Thai women were "working" is not clear to me; after all, we were with four Thai women ourselves, though they were possibly the most conservatively dressed ones in the entire club. Definitely, some of the Thai women were "professionals," i.e. taking money for their company (perhaps with sex involved later, I have no idea).

Despite our initial trepidation, we had a great time. Our team leader probably had the best time he's ever had, being surrounded by Thai women dancing; definitely not something he had experienced in Peoria! Heather had maybe her best birthday ever; the scene was just so odd yet fun. I had a real good time, too. I was reminded of dance/club experiences on New Year's Eve in Honduras, of Burning Man, and other club scenes, which is obviously not my usual one! I hope we get another chance to go out on the town, as we have not been exposed to this side of Thailand with our, generally, middle-aged Thai Rotarian hosts.