I thought we were staying in for the evening, but it turned out that we were meeting K. Oy's boyfriend K. Thep for dinner out on the town. I had just received a call from my Aunt telling me that Bangkok officials had declared a State of Emergency because of the violent protests going on all around the city. K. Iad and K. Noy kept saying to me "mai di, mai di" which means "no good, no good" while we watched videos of violent protesting on the TV...in Thai of course. The whole hour long car ride the radio was announcing the news and what was going on in the city. It was kind of scary because the car was silent except this booming Thai voice over the radio with the pictures coming back into my mind. I didn't understand what was going on and if my BKK home was near any of it. Eventually the ladies turned the radio off and had a long and intense conversation. After a very long car ride we got to the restaurant: Holland Beer.
Inside, the restaurant was huge. There were 100+ tables and a few different sub-section rooms, only a few of which were occupied at that point. There was also a huge stage decorated with colorful flowers and lights in honor of the Songkran festivities that officially started at midnight that night. We sat down in the center of the restaurant and let K. Thep order food for us all.
First came the beer. I got the "head of the table" glass and then they brought out a tube filled with 3 L of beer. I was really not looking forward to drinking a lot of beer and hoped that K. Thep was thirsty (I definitely couldn't count on the bird sitting across from me or the non-drinking K. Iad--who did drink a beer though to my surprise!) It was a slightly banana flavored beer and was actually delicious. When the food came out they explained what everything was to me...everything was spicy, which always creates laughs for the Thai people to watch me eat. The only non-spicy thing was the plate of "sausages" (hot dogs), which I have no doubt were ordered for me to feel more at home.
The banana beer and three of the six servers that tended to our table
During dinner there were a few different performers on the stage and a few bad renditions of English songs (My Girl was pretty painful). The tables slowly started to fill up with a couple hundred people. About 30 minutes later a guy, dressed as a woman, came on stage singing songs as both a soprano and a bass. In Thailand they call these women "ladyboys." I think she was a comedian as well because she would talk between songs and the crowd always roared with laughter. I never understood a single joke, they were all in Thai of course! Then the spotlight started scanning the audience and I heard the word farang (foreigner). One spotlight was on me, but the other one, and the camera, were on the one other foreigner in the room--the standard white guy with Thai girl. Whew. Did I forget to mention that there were two large jumbo-screens on either side of the stage? The comedian made lots of jokes at the man's expense...I'm assuming because none were in English. Then my fellow three dinner companions did the unthinkable, they requested a song for me without my knowing. The spotlight shot at me and the cameras were on. I think I mentally blacked it all out on purpose. My big white face/hair was blaring on the big screens and there was a lot of laughter accompanying the ladyboy's Thai chatter. I was mortified but sucked it up and laughed along with them. She sang the song 'I Will Survive' and then they took my face off the screen.
The white girl in her white shirt with her white hair: a Thai comedian's dream. They gave me, and only me, that flower necklace when I walked in the door.
The entire restaurant watched me the rest of the evening. I was a very rare specimen. They kept showing my face on the big screen throughout the night, often with a heart icon around it. K. Oy assured me that they were saying I was beautiful, but with all the laughter I had my doubts.
The ladyboy left the stage and we had 2 more hours of pure crazy Songkran singing and dancing entertainment. Some dances were traditional Thai and some were very modern. The dancers/singers also came through the audience and danced with some people (including me) along the way. The waitresses even grabbed me and K. Iad forced me to dance with them a little bit so she could take a picture. Look at how blaringly white I am next to them all! I swear I'm even tan (for me) right now.
It started getting late, I knew we had to get up the next morning at 5 AM and I didn't want anymore banana beer. But, I didn't want to be the party pooper on this great holiday, so I stuck it out and kept smiling and giggling. Finally, at midnight we got into our car and drove back to K. Oy's. The ride home was much shorter, which makes me think that she took an extra long route the way there to avoid the Bangkok "disaster spots" that they were listing on the radio. We got home and went right to sleep...only to be woken up 4.5 hours later for the final part of my 3 part blog!
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