Good Times!

Last weekend a few folks from Lampang went on a group trip to Chiang Mai. We ended up having a group of 8 friends who went out for the evening: Me, Hilary, Otto, Justin, David, Jeab, John and Kazu. After a relaxing coffee at the Fern Forest Cafe (a beautiful garden in the middle of the city!) we went out for delicious Mexican food. We hired a song-taew(mini-van) for the night since there were many of us and we planned on drinking. Our first stop was the new German Brewery!!! yes, we sampled the weisens, doublebocks, lagers, etc. it was amazing! the music and entertainment was top notch as well. there were a couple of old guys singing traditional songs and speaking in some "old-fashioned" dialect that even otto couldn't understand. then a man came out dressed as Batman and sang a song about how he missed his girlfriend. he was also wearing skin-tight clothes and dancing among the beer vats. after that, a man came out and played some kenny g. saxophone tunes and serenaded me at my table. it was difficult to keep a straight face since i particularly hate that kind of music. then we all piled back in the songtaew and made our way to the Brasserie. this is the place with the amazing guitarist so we all danced and promised to go back when we can hear a full set.

so saturday was cool and then tuesday our friend Anjan invited us to a Hindu temple in town for some fabulous vegetarian indian food. we didn't know that there would actually be a full hindu service before dinner. it was very interesting for me. a man read from a holy book and then there was singing and chanting. the most interesting thing was when people took turns to go up to the vishnu statue and bless themselves by waving a candle around in the air. i felt a little awkward because i didn't know what to do most of the time. the women had to sit on one side of the temple while the men were on the other. they also separated when they ate dinner. it was definitely a unique experience and the food was amazing and the people were very kind. they invited us to go back next week and i just might!

here are some pictures from saturday. hilary and kazu enjoy the songtaew ride:


hilary and justin....how are they able to coordinate funny faces?!

Blissful:


Roomies in Purple:


the crew: