Friday Night

This one goes down in the history books

The day played out like normal, we had class, and we welcomed Si Jie back from mediation. The evening is when all the excitement began. Early evening we attended and viewed some of the International Dance Festival at our favourite park. We watched a man dance in an una-tard, a couple dance an Argentinean Tango, and Italian trio dance to an Italian opera, just to name a few. It was quite enjoyable but extremely hot at the outdoor venue. We felt very much like high soi’s (city girls).

At this point we were all a bit hungry so Jodie suggested we go to Dubliners which is a pub that Father Joe mentions quite regularly. He told it was his favourite pub and that if we ever stopped by that we should ask for Wayne who is the manager and to tell him that Father Joe has sent you. So proceed to do exactly what he instructed. We walked to Dubliners, had a quick chat with GED who is one of our students and works at the pub, and then on a search for Wayne. We were told he was wearing a orange shirt so it didn’t take long to find him. We introduced ourselves and mentioned that we worked for Father Joe. He informed us that Father Joe and Retenna (his assistant) had actually been in the pub earlier in the day and then shared stories with us about his friendship with Father Joe. He had extremely high praises for Father Joe. A few minutes later, John, the owner of the Pub came over to us and introduced himself and again shared stories of praise about Father Joe. He then proceeded to tell us that our meal was on the house and they were welcome to anything on the menu including food and drinks. The girls and I were thrilled to accept his offer. Jodie and I ordered a grand meal that included roast chicken, stuffing and mashed potatoes. To describe my reaction to this meal as ecstatic would be an understatement. Those mashed potatoes made my mouth melt and my heart happy. The roast chicken was the size of three rolls of toilet paper and every bite was suburb.

The atmosphere at the pub was really fun and for a time, I felt like I was sitting in a pub at home. The people were very friendly and we actually met up with 2 fellow Canadians. John repeatedly made toasts to us and brought over a variety of drinks. We definitely felt like royalty.

The entertainment in the pub also made this night worthy of the record books. A man sporting a head to toe green Irish inspired get up played a variety of classic pop songs on his guitar and harmonic. Some of our favs include, Beautiful Girl. (Sean Kingston), Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash), Wonderwall (Oasis), Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams), Brown Eyed Girl, Twist and Shout, American Pie and Green Day classics, just to name a few. At one point, the girls and I got up to dance to one of the songs and the guitarist asked us if we wanted to join his band and offered us some shakers, tambourines and other music makers. The rest of our time at Dubliners was spent rocking out, dancing freely and singing our hearts out to beloved American classics with our Irish friend. He commented that this was the best band he had ever formed and I believe it to be no word of a lie…haha.

Although, we had no desire to leave, we had promised Cedric a fellow volunteer that we would met him at RCA and so we pulled ourselves away and jumped into a taxi. RCA is a street of dance clubs and pubs, where “college aged kids” as Tom would describe, hang out. We met up with Cedric and a couple of his friends there and hit up the dance floor for the next hour. I was shocked by the lack of dancing. The place was packed but no one was dancing, but that didn’t stop us. We found our own little corner and danced our hearts out for the next hour. We met a couple of friendly Thai’s that also joined us.

To sum it all up…. Our evening was EPIC!!! And that’s why it will go down in the Misty and Jodie Thailand history books. We were treated like royalty and we danced and sang the night away at the cost of 3 dollars Canadian. And that folks is what makes Thailand, a beautiful, beautiful place.