Thai BBQ

Just woke up here - Last day in Chiang Mai - kinda bummed as it has been a good time AND from all I hear quite the luxury as compared to our subsequent posts. I might have complained a bit about the food here - but all in all it was pretty awesome. Last night some of the office people that worked at our training center took about 20 of us to a Thai BBQ.

The BBQ place was a huge open air affair, over 100 meters square, divided by a single long table. At one end was a stage and the rest of the area was crammed with picnic tables. The long table was the key - it had upwards of a hundred metal trays full of every imaginable raw seafood/meat/veggie. You would grab a plate, fill up with whatever you wanted and come back to the table. Each table was supplied with a pot of charcoal - already at blast furnace heat and with a lemon-juicer shaped cooking dome that sat on top. You would then pour hot water into the shallow ring around the dome for broth and cook everything else on the raised middle dome. This was all accompanied by a ladyboy show on the stage - and while that sounds rather touristy - the audience was exclusively Thai families.

Went out with our two teachers afterwards and then trickled home as most of the bars had closed for the princes birthday. A bottle of local rum/whiskey - Sang Som - was opened and we ended up having a bit of a soire on the UNISERV deck. Awesome view from the 3rd floor of night-time Chiang Mai.