Day 5 continued - Night Bizarre

Tonight I decided I would try my shot at the Chiang Mai Night Bizarre. Wow, what an experience!

As I strolled down the street towards the bizarre, which is about 8 blocks from my guesthouse or so, I ran into a little food cart. They were selling Rotee and had many different options including chocolate, banana, and egg. All I know is that I was hungry, it smelled good, and it said pancakes on the sign. I went for it! Now, the funny thing about these street vendors is that back home, you would never even dream of eating food from one of these, or maybe you would but it isn't my style. I like clean restaurants that have food inspections and the like. However, there is something about being in a foreign country that screams EAT STREET VENDOR FOOD! It's all part of the experience!

Back to the Night Bizarre...

I wish I was a better photographer so I could capture the essence of this place but I fear my description and stories will have to suffice until you can experience this firsthand here in Thailand. Imagine walking through streets lined with bars and restaurants with neon lights, lots of people, music, etc. Now imagine thousands of little stalls setup on the sidewalks with people crowding the stalls to look at the good being sold. There are shirts, jewelry, bags, various clothes, you know, the typical touristy crap people buy. I've come to a decision that I don't like to buy things in foreign countries. I'm not sure why but I didn't buy anything in Israel and I can't imagine buying anything here either. It seems like you spend forever looking for the perfect gift when in reality I think the perfect gift for my parents is for me to make it home in one piece! I digress. There are 2 huge buildings that are part of this bizarre as it is a nightly occurrence. One of them is packed with more stalls and the other with stalls, a huge food area, and live music. The food area is coupon only. You have to go up to this lady and give her money and she gives you coupons worth however much cash you have just given her. You go up to the various windows (there are about 15 or so of them) and decide what you want, give them the coupons, and off you go. You can get a refund for whatever coupons you don't use. I can say that my Dad would truly be in hog heaven in this town because I know I am!

To be honest, I was a little overwhelmed and my feet were starting to hurt after wandering around for 2 hours so I came back to blog and relax...

Other sightings tonight:

1) There are various older unattractive men walking around with hot young Thai women in hand. Scary. I'm not sure if they are hookers or girlfriends. Either way, it is wrong on so many levels. It brings a whole new meaning to "trophy wife"

2) There is a Muay Thai boxing ring on Thae Pae road (the same road as the bizarre) that I walked through quickly. It is one of the craziest things I have seen...There are about 20 large stalls in the building and each one is open air. There are bars in each of these stalls with different themes, music, decorations, etc...basically Las Vegas on crack!

3) Young Thai boys dressed up like women. One of them bumped into me and the other one I saw tried to sell me a ticket to the boxing match. I don't think I need to say much more...

4) Politics. Everyone I have met has either said "Go Obama" or "Who did you vote for?". I've had quite a few interesting discussions about it thus far. I'm sure there will be more as I'm only 1/4 of the way through my trip!

...Sandra and Stephan just walked by and we swapped email addresses as they are leaving for Krabi tomorrow for a few days and then back home to Switzerland. I'm sure I'll see them again sometime in the future whether it be in the U.S. or in Switzerland! Meeting people while traveling is such an awesome thing!

Signing off...