Today started out like any regular Tuesday. Because of scheduling difficulties (I had to work from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. and The Fairer Traveler had to work at 11:20 a.m.), The Fairer Traveler got to use the bike today. We worked it out that she would ride with me to drop me off at my school, and then she could have the bike for the rest of the day and I would walk from my school to the highway and grab a red truck home.
So, after a fairly enjoyable day at the kindergarten - we played games and the kids seemed to understand the vocabulary fairly well - I started my walk to the highway. Driving to the kindie, it didn't seem like a very long walk, but now that the sun was high, I was wearing long black pants, a button up shirt and carrying a backpack, the walk seemed a little more arduous than I though it would be.
When I was fairly close to the highway, I heard a little bit of music and saw that it was coming out of a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop on the side of the road (if I didn't hear the music, I wouldn't have seen the shop at all). So, being tired, sweaty and addicted to caffeine I decided to walk in to this little coffee shop. I was greeted by four fairly old (middle-aged+) Thai men rehearsing some jazz music pieces. They immediately all looked up from playing and stared at me. For a second, no one said anything, I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. Then, I said, "Sawasdee krap (hello), do you guys have any coffee? " They all immediately smiled and said hello back. The bassist got up and asked if I wanted it iced and then went to making me a pretty good cuppa' joe.
The front man (singer/guitar player) started talking to me and asked me if I enjoyed music, I happily told him I loved music and asked if I could watch them rehearse for a little while. He was over-joyed to let me stay and watch them (I was the only customer). He told me about a show they were rehearsing for at a hotel and told me about their band.
Dang Fantastic's "name card"
The front man's name I learned was "Dang Fantastic" ("Dang" is a fairly common nickname for Thai men, "Fantastic," however, is not a common Thai surname), and they are a cover/jazz band. The band has some of their own songs and some famous oldies. For a while I sat, enjoyed my coffee, and laughed with Dang about his Louis Armstrong impression which was just about spot on ("I see skies of blue, clouds of white..." throaty and beautiful).
After, finishing my coffee, I shook all the members hands received Dang's business (he called it his "name") card and was off to try and find a way home.
Before I left, Dang asked me to look him up on YouTube to see some of his older concerts. I did and it turns out he's pretty big in Thailand and quite a showman. I linked the video to save readers some time:
Final note: I'm going to try to start carrying my camera with me everywhere I go so I can have pictures of the things I see, and don't have to go into so much detail when explaining what I saw.
