On to Phayao - Finally!

Quint:  The next morning we were up at sparrows.  We wanted to get to Phayao early so we could chill out a bit and hopefully partake in some "extra mural activities."  200kms and we did it in about 3 hours, not bad.  The purple monster, was however, struggling a bit on the up hills but managed to keep up ok.

Phayao thankfully, was more then just a one horse town.  Set on the side of a large lake, it seemed to be quite a buzz.  After the previous nights budget arrangement, we decided a hotel would be a treat and managed to find quite a nice one for about $3.50 per night!!  NOW we were smiling!  Unfortunately after a short boat trip on the lake and a couple ice creams later, we realized the rain was about to come down hard.  So after a few thoughts we decidedd to cancel our evening drive around the lake and thought well, lets do what we best when it rains at home and watch a movie.

Enthusiastic about our idea, we set off to find a DVD rental store, hoping we could also rent the machine as well, as the hotel didn't have one.  After much frustrating sign language and playground talk we finally got the gist that there were DVD's for rent but no DVD players.  We were about to give up when we found out the owner of the shop also owned a Kareoke bar next door that had privvate studio rooms we could rent for about $1.00 and hour.  Problem solved.  We ended up watching a fantastic movie called "The Hurricane" with Denzel Washington in our private room with surround sound.

Much to our dismay and utter disbelief there were about 8 Asian men in the room next to us dancing and singing Karaoke with their shirts off and a couple crates of beers.  Looking through the glass walls at this bunch we couldn't work out why at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon they would be up to such a game, I mean, did they not have jobs?? - Or wives to go home to?  As queer as it most definitely was, within a further few weeks of travel in Asia, we began to realize that when we go to the pubs back home, men over here hit the Karaoke bars - no matter how many hairs they have on their chests!