Day 30
Yesterday Ryan and I bought two avocados to eat today for breakfast. Along with the avocados we bought salt. We got the salt from the 7-11 near our house. On the shelf we saw a large container of salt for 40 baht, and next to it was a much smaller bag of what looked like salt. The bag had only thai writing on it, so we purchased it, hoping that it was salt that we were buying. So this morning we woke up excited to eat our avocados. We cut them open, and immediatley smiled at home perfectly ripe and yummy it looked. We opened our bag of salt and dipped our finger in to taste it. It definitely wasnt salt. lt had a strange chicken flavour to it. We decided to put it on our avocado thinking that it must be some sort of soup flavoring. We put too much. It ruined our avocado, and after eating half of it, we sadly threw our avocados way. I decided to bring the package of "chicken rocks" to school to ask Moz what it was. When we got there I took the package out of my purse and asked him what it was, he said it was pure MSG. I immediately felt sick. He laughed and pointed to the Thai writing and said, you should have done your thai translitlerating, you would see that these characters translate to "MSG". For the rest of the day at school Ryan and I felt sick from our chicken rock breakfast. After school we went back to our apartment to relax. We listened to our audiobook for a couple of hours. After we walked to get smoothies. We walked around with our smoothies and went into a few used book stores to look at their selection. From here we made our way back to our apartment. On our walk back we talked about what we wanted to do with the rest of our night. It was thursday, which meant it was the start of our weekend. We were thinking of things to do, when we suddenly were drawn to a small side street. It was long, narrow, and luminated with a positive energy. We glanced at eachother in unison, and began to stroll down the street feeling a sort of camptivation by its energy. At the end of the street we came across a small bar. The place was inviting, with open walls, small tables, a pool table, and two flat screen tvs playing NBA games. In front of the entrance was a menu. We sifted through it looking at prices and food options, when a small cheerful Thai man walked out from behind the bar and approached us. In broken English he told us that the kitchen was closed because there was going to be a party. He was trying to find his words in English to describe what kind of party it was. He said the party was for a girl. I asked if it was a birthday party, and he said yes excitedly, "It for birthday". He ushered for us to come in and buy a drink. We felt complled, so we went in and sat down. We were the only customers. We ordered two large beers and watched a recorded nba game; wizzards vs clippers. The man who welcomed us in was taping balloons to all the banisters, and decorating the pillars with streamers. People were steadily streaming out from the kitche with platters of rice, pizza, tempura, and pots filled with curry and chicken. The man smiled at us and said "Soon you eat. Soon party start. Big birthday." We had no idea what was going on. I looked at Ryan in confusion. Does this guy think that we know the person whose birthday it is? Are we suppose to pay for this food? Is he mistaking us for someone else?We decided to go with the flow. Feeling a little uncomfortable, we sat there drinking our beer. Soon people began to arrive for the party. There was a group of four white people that sat to the left of us. They hugged the man who worked there, and set a few gifts on a table behind Ryan and I. The host of the party came over to us again, and with a large grin said "we eat real soon". A moment later a family of Thais walked in,four older women and four kids; two small girls in princess outfits, and two boys. The host came up to us and pointed to one of the little girls and said to us " this birthday girl. Four years old". We looked at the girl and said happy birthday, her and her family smiled at us and sat at the table to the right of us. Ryan and I kept looking at eachother and laughing, we had no idea what was going on, but everything seemed funny. The host came over to us and said "now you eat". We nodded and said thank you. We sat there for a moment not moving, unsure of what to do.We were the only ones at the party who didnt know anyone. We sat there in stillness. I felt rude for not eating, but at the same time rude if I did eat. All of a sudden, all of the Thai women to the right of us were motioning for us to go get food, they were not taking no for an answer. One of the Thai ladies guided us to the table in an escort fashion. She stood there smiling as she watched us put food on our plate. I put a piece of pizza on my table and began to turn away, she put her arm out to stop me and said, "Curry". I put some curry on my plate and turned towards our table. She put her arm out again, and turned me back towards the buffet. In Thai, she started naming off the rest of the food on the table, and pointed at each one, smiling and waiting for me to put it on my plate. I looked at the white guy next to me in and asked him if he knew anyone at the party. He said he did. I told him that we didnt know anyone, and that the host invited us in to eat. He smiled and said "thats the Thai way." A minute later I retunred to our table with a plate of fried rice, chicken curry, vegetable tempura,and Pizza. Ryan joined me with an equally full plate. The food was amazing. The thai family kept looking at our table and smiling. One of the women showed us her bowl of food and said a few things in Thai and asked us a question. We had no idea what she said, so we just smiled. A minute later she came back to our table with a bowl of what she was eating and set it down in front of us. We nodded and thanked her. It was a bowl of chicken feet in a thick teriyaki sauce. I tried one, but didnt care for it. Most of it was fatty. I let Ryan eat most of them. After eating, we felt obligated to buy drinks, since we were given all this free food. So we ordered more beers. A minute later the woman who gave us the chicken feet asked us in thai to take a picture with her.That led to a short photo session of a few other thai women taking pictures with us. After the women, we were asked to take pictures with the kids, and the birthday girl. I couldnt stop smiling. An hour ago we were walking down the street trying to decide what to do with our night, and now we were at a random four year olds birthday party, eating their food, and taking family pictures. After the pictures Ryan and I bought a third round and played a few games of pool. I must admit that at first it was hard to accept their sincere hospitality. I felt as though we needed to give them something, but as soon as we relaxed and accepted it with smiles and gratitude, we felt compeltely comfortable and at home among everyone. At the end of our pool game i noticed a white couple walk in. You could tell by the expressions on their face and their body language that they were also outsiders to the party. The host ran over to them with a smile and sat them at the same table Ryan and I were sitting at before our games of pool. Ryan and I watched them for across the room and laughed thinking, " thats what we looked like an hour ago". I thought it would be nice to walk over and make them feel welcome, so i pulled up a chair next to the woman and asked them if they knew anyone at the party. They said no, and explained in a frantic voice that the host invited them in and they had no idea what was going on. I told them we were in the same boat an hour ago, and that they should grab some food and enjoy themselves. The next hour Ryan and I spent sitting with the couple. We learned that they were from Holland, and were traveling through Chiang Mai for a few days. We offered to show them to our favorite Rootz Rock Reggae bar and the surrounding area after the birthday party. They liked that idea. A moment later there were two birthday cakes on our table, and everyone gathered around us. I began to feel like we were the focal point of the party and not the four year old; we were the first to grab food earlier, we now sat at the table with the cakes, and we summoned to be in more pictures than anyone else at the party. When the birthday girl got to the table everyone began to sing happy birthday, not in Thai, but in English, which was a bit surprising. To no surprise Ryan and I got the first piece of cake. After a while the party began to die down. There were only a hand full of people left, one of them being the mother of the birthday girl. The mom was really drunk. She walked over to sit with the four of us; Ryan, Cindy and Simon( the Europeans), and I. She sat there talking our ears off. She spoke in slurred English, that was so inaudible, she mine as well have been speaking Thai. Around midnight we said our goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for the party. The four of us walked to the plaza area with all the bars. We showed them rootz, rock, reggae, and stayed there for a drink, and then made our way across the square to one of the bars playing loud dance music. We stayed there for a while, dancing and having a great time. Our new friends were having a great night, and we were pleased to have shared the birthday party experience with them. After one too many drinks were getting tired and so were our friends. We hugged, said safe travels, and parted ways.
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| Our new friends from Holland and some of the generous women from the party. |
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The host is wearing the red ears. The birthday girl is in the center, and her mom is to the right.
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| Our bag of MSG |
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