After a great, but whirlwind visit to Chaing Mai, we're now sitting in the airport waiting to board a flight back to Bangkok. I bought a bottle of water and a Mocha from Black Canyon Coffee, one of the local chains which uses an American cowboy for its logo. It's not a large ariport, so the gate was right inside security and there's no Starbucks here. We had an interesting check in experience. Eighteen of us got through the check in line in about 5 minutes, and I decided it's the fastest airport check in I've ever encountered. It made me wonder what the hell is wrong with Cathay Pacific at O'Hare. But for the last six people, some man collected their passport and took them to a self-service check in kiosk where he spent what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time going through the self check in process for each person. Then he had to take them to the self-serve baggage drop off and go through a 3- or 4-step process to self check in all of their bags. It was a frustrating waste of time and reminded me of those awful self check out lanes which I hate.
While I blog, most of the students are sitting here working on their assignments which are due Tuesday. We're using the free airport WiFi, which requires us to enter our passport numbers for access. Considering the laws in Thailand, providers of free WiFi must collect information about who is using it, in case anyone uses the WiFi to post anything illegal. We learned about this at Google last week, so we're experiencing the regulation first-hand.
The last time I posted I mentioned that I was feeling much better just as the business visits wrapped up and we were going out for the evening. Now I feel much worse. But anyway, we headed from Philip Morris to the nearby Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit to enjoy drinks and catch the sunset at the Octave Rooftop Lounge and Bar on the 46th Floor. It was happy hour, so drinks were half price. I had a drink called Mango Sticky Rice. Drinks aside, the views were absolutely incredible and the weather was near perfect. It was an wonderful way to begin the evening, and if we weren't headed to dinner I could have stayed there all night.
But Angie, Brenda, and I did head to dinner with Peter. We went to a small place in a trendy neighborhood that was slightly off the beaten path. Apparently, the restaurant started in the family home of some of Peter's cousins They have since added on a modest but nice dining room for the public, and we shared a number of delicious traditional thai dishes which Peter ordered on our behalf. In all, the dinner cost 220 Thai Baht, or $6.37, which was one Baht less than my drink ealier in the evening.
After dinner we walked through a trendy mixed use contemporary market space next door, which is apparently owned by an honorary graduate of IU. There was live music, and it would have been a cool hangout spot, but we were headed to a bar about a block away called Iron Fairies. Iron Fairies was truly an experience. It was desigend by and architect who creates lots of bars in the city, and it had a unique, dark, steam-punky vibe. There were tiny medicine-like jars lining the walls, stairs to nowhere, multiple levels, a seating area accessible only through a door hidden in a bookcase, gargoyles, pipes, and general funkyness. I tried a Thai beer (Singha) which I enjoyed; Angie had some sort of Smoke drink "#1," which came in a closed bottle with incense smoke inside. After a while a band started playing live music, but we left after one drink to take a short cab ride to the next spot - designed by the same guy - called Iron Balls Distillery.
This place was totally Steampunk. Lots of iron latticework and gear motifs on the exterior of the glass-house still room. This place was slightly less dark, but had pressed tin ceilings, multiple levels, and walls lined with empty specimen jars. We settled into a cozy upstairs nook to enjoy some delicios Gin and Tonics made with the gin distilled on-site. It was a really cool place and a lot of fun. Once we finished our drinks we took a cab back to the hotel and headed to bed for much needed rest.
While I blog, most of the students are sitting here working on their assignments which are due Tuesday. We're using the free airport WiFi, which requires us to enter our passport numbers for access. Considering the laws in Thailand, providers of free WiFi must collect information about who is using it, in case anyone uses the WiFi to post anything illegal. We learned about this at Google last week, so we're experiencing the regulation first-hand.
The last time I posted I mentioned that I was feeling much better just as the business visits wrapped up and we were going out for the evening. Now I feel much worse. But anyway, we headed from Philip Morris to the nearby Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit to enjoy drinks and catch the sunset at the Octave Rooftop Lounge and Bar on the 46th Floor. It was happy hour, so drinks were half price. I had a drink called Mango Sticky Rice. Drinks aside, the views were absolutely incredible and the weather was near perfect. It was an wonderful way to begin the evening, and if we weren't headed to dinner I could have stayed there all night.
But Angie, Brenda, and I did head to dinner with Peter. We went to a small place in a trendy neighborhood that was slightly off the beaten path. Apparently, the restaurant started in the family home of some of Peter's cousins They have since added on a modest but nice dining room for the public, and we shared a number of delicious traditional thai dishes which Peter ordered on our behalf. In all, the dinner cost 220 Thai Baht, or $6.37, which was one Baht less than my drink ealier in the evening.
After dinner we walked through a trendy mixed use contemporary market space next door, which is apparently owned by an honorary graduate of IU. There was live music, and it would have been a cool hangout spot, but we were headed to a bar about a block away called Iron Fairies. Iron Fairies was truly an experience. It was desigend by and architect who creates lots of bars in the city, and it had a unique, dark, steam-punky vibe. There were tiny medicine-like jars lining the walls, stairs to nowhere, multiple levels, a seating area accessible only through a door hidden in a bookcase, gargoyles, pipes, and general funkyness. I tried a Thai beer (Singha) which I enjoyed; Angie had some sort of Smoke drink "#1," which came in a closed bottle with incense smoke inside. After a while a band started playing live music, but we left after one drink to take a short cab ride to the next spot - designed by the same guy - called Iron Balls Distillery.
This place was totally Steampunk. Lots of iron latticework and gear motifs on the exterior of the glass-house still room. This place was slightly less dark, but had pressed tin ceilings, multiple levels, and walls lined with empty specimen jars. We settled into a cozy upstairs nook to enjoy some delicios Gin and Tonics made with the gin distilled on-site. It was a really cool place and a lot of fun. Once we finished our drinks we took a cab back to the hotel and headed to bed for much needed rest.
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