Our First Night Out "Bar Unknown"

     After two exhausting weeks we were able to find one night to go out, let loose, and make some memories. To start, we found the street that contained all the bars (Thai equivalent to Court St.) which at the end of the night was deemed irrelevant due to the fact that we stayed at the same bar all night, which we never found the name of hints "Bar Unknown." The outside of the bar looked like a jungle it was about 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. As you see here there was a swing tied to one of the trees that hung over the surrounding area. The vibe of the bar was very relaxed, chilled, and had a Zen feeling to it. I apologize for the blur but I guess it gives you a perspective of the night.


As we were relaxing in the back a group of people came and joined and to our amazement all spoke English, which was not a regular occurrence because we are not in the tourist part of Thailand. The group turned out to be in a volunteer organization that worked in hospitals and apparently also built toilets (whatevs.) Their nationalities ranged from Britain, Australia, Brazil, and even Utah (close to were I spent my Freshman year of college.) We also met a guy (50 or so year-old) named Andy who seemed to be a free spirit alcoholic. His stories lasted for ages ranging from the Boston police giving him pounds of marijuana to his recently self built man
made pond with 5 water falls and white sand imported from god knows where. After about an hour of talking to him he attempted to get us to come back to his place, we kindly rejected the offer. However, his offer was presented in persistance he continually tried to get us to come back to his house over and over again. It got a tad creepy so I told him we were staying with another family and could not. He seemed to understand, we could not figure out if his offer was in kind spirit or if we would have ended up in a cement basement chained to a wall. I guess we wil never know and I suppose I will count that as a positive, yet I am glad we met him.

The tables that we sat at were very unique in their build. They were the bottoms of Singer sewing machines (same as shown in pic from link) from the 1800's built from iron with a foot pedal on the bottom that you were able to press and work a wheel. It was nice to see an 1800's sewing machine based in New Jersey, America to be in a small bar on a street in Chiang Rai, Thailand. As you see here, we were playing Jenga which can be much more enjoyable with wobbling hands and twisted vision. At the end of the night as we departed from the small bar a feeling a completion came to us. After two weeks of hard work and producing work of value we were granted one night out that we treated with moderation. We met wonderful people from around the world, had a close encounter with a sketchy old man, and let our mind focus on something other than work. In closure, it was beautiful time that I will forever cherish along with the people I met. Thank you for reading!!!!

-Z