Making pancakes, A local night out and Thai Country music - Chiang Rai, Thailand

I'm staying in the Mercy hostel in Chiang Rai. This hostel does not serve breakfast. They do have free bananas though. But I'm starting to crave for something western. I want some pancakes with jam and fruit. So I make my way to the supermarket and I buy all the ingredients to make pancakes and I head back to the hostel.

Very proudly I tell someone in the hostel about my plans. "But how are you going to make them?", he asks, "There is no stove.". Somehow I overlooked the fact that there is no stove in this hostel. I was baffled. Yes they have a kitchen area, but they only have a microwave and a toaster. There's nothing to make pancakes with.

So I started my mission. My mission is to use someone else's stove or waffle maker to either make pancakes or waffles. I really want my pancakes. The hostel is no help. It's not possible to make pancakes here. So I go across the street. There is a bookstore there. The owner is from the UK and his wife is Thai. So I tell him my story and ask if he can help me out. But he cannot.

Further down the street is a small restaurant. I have been there before for eating. The owner is really nice. I tell her my story and I ask if I could please use her kitchen to make pancakes. This also is not working. I am really craving for pancakes now! OMG! Defeated I go back to the hostel.

My craving for pancakes is so high that I go to the night market to buy some waffles instead. They are super cheap. On the way there I pass by a few electronic stores. They sell pancake makers. I ask the prices of them and check out every store I can find. The cheapest one I can find is 590 Baht (16.34 Euro). I'm close to buying it, but I start thinking. Is it really worth it? A waffle on the street only costs 20 baht and a pancake with bananas, chocolate and condensed milk is only 40 baht. I can buy a lot of those for the price of this cooker. So I skip out on this.

I finally make it to the market. But for some reason the sellers who do the waffles aren't there! Damn. This is not my lucky day. I run up and down the market and finally find a pancake! Again defeated I head back to the hostel.

But I am not giving up! This is my mission now. I will make pancakes before I leave Chiang Rai, no matter what! I will find a way to make it work. In the meantime I am eating toast with jam and fruit.

Tinder

I finally head to my last resort. Tinder! I start swiping and get a few matches. I tell them my story and ask them very nicely if I can use their kitchen to make pancakes.

I got quite a lot of replies to this. Most of them found it funny. But they either were living with their family, didn't have stove themselves or didn't want to let a stranger in their house. The culture here is a lot different than from the west.

I do manage to get a date out of this. A local from Chiang Rai wanted to meet up and show me the local food. I gladly accept. We went to the Night Bazaar in Chiang Rai. She ordered spicy hot pot. Next we had fried worms and I had a Thai salad.

IMG_2128 2.JPG

The worms are actually pretty good. You just can't think of them as worms and then you will be okay.

Making pancakes

The next day I am still on my pancake mission. I will make pancakes, I will succeed. In the street of my hostel is a guest house. So I enter the guest house and kindly ask them if I can use their kitchen to make pancakes.

They said yes. So I ran back to my hostel, got all the stuff I needed and went back to the guest house. I went to the kitchen. The staff was also cooking here. But they gave me a free spot on the stove and a pan. So I started cooking.

It was very funny, because the pan I got was really terrible for pancakes and it's a gas stove. I'm used to cooking on an induction stove. I have very rarely cooked on gas before. They even asked me if it was the first time I cooked.

But I did succeed in making my pancakes. I was done cooking at the same time as the staff of the guest house. So they invited me to join them for food. They shared their food with me and I gave them a pancake. It was rice with curry and chicken. It was super delicious. Way better than my pancakes.

Then they asked me "When did you check in? Yesterday or today?". I was like "Oh, I'm actually staying in Mercy Hostel across the street.". Everyone just dies from laughter! They asked me how I knew to come and cook here. "Well I just passed by and asked if I could use the kitchen.", I said "You guys said yes, so I did".

I'm actually a bit sad that I didn't take a group picture in the guest house. It really is a great story and a fun memory. But I do have a picture of my pancakes with jam. Sadly I already finished all my fruit to add to it.

A local night out

Me and the girl from tinder are still texting. She wanted to show me a local night out with Thai country. I made some friends in the hostel by then and we all went. She came to pick us up by car and headed to the "Tawandan" club. If I can call it a club. It's a restaurant, bar, club, live music kind of thing.

We were early and one of the first to enter. This place is huge! There is a big stage in front and a lot of tables. We settle down and order some beers with tequila. I don't know if this is a good idea though. The bar started to fill up with people and soon it was packed!

After that we decided to order a bottle of whiskey and have some bottles of coca cola. This is a lot cheaper than beer. Me and my friends were the only white people here. Everyone was Thai. It was absolutely amazing. I love to be submerged into the culture like this. This is when you learn the most about them.

We absolutely have a blast of a night! We all got drunk and only paid 500 baht (13.85) per person. We had a bit of food, beers, coca cola, and 1L of whiskey. We grabbed locals from their chairs and danced with them, we heard Thai country songs and had an amazing night.

I am so grateful for the amazing people I met. Specially my friend from Tinder who was so open to show us the local culture. To take us, strangers, to a local bar and let us experience a Thai night out. Thank you so much!