Barbies and Bars

Dear Wilson,

After meeting Wah in the bar that night, the next day she invited our entire family to go see a movie with her and her daughter Sarah. (Sarah is a year older than Cali) Not just any movie though. It had to be the Barbie movie. Probably the single worst movie I could of been invited to but fuck it, I will go for the experience. I don't say no to new experiences in Thailand. Even if that means a Barbie movie. 

So we met Wah at the Maya mall in the Theater area. She insisted that she bought the tickets. We got there about 2 hours early to make sure we could get tickets. After we secured those, Wah wanted to show us around a market about 5 minutes away for some food. My family was terrified of what she might ask us to eat. Erica wanted to bail but I insisted that we just go with the flow. On our way to the market, I went ahead and told Wah the things we have tried that we absolutely couldn't bear to eat again. She thought we were funny but respected our preferences. She found other foods for us to try and they weren't that bad actually. I have no idea what I ate to be honest. It wasn't meat. Some vegetarian snacks. Then we found some shrimp on a stick like kabob style and they were delicious. We did all of this while a hippie style couple played some very relaxing, meditative, tribal-like music. So here we were in a random market in Thailand with a local, trying random food. Funny how things work out. After about an hour and a half of this we headed back to the sooooo anticipated Barbie movie. 

Now, we had very low expectations for this movie. Like very low. Before the movie, we watched Thai commercials with English subtitles. After the commercials, there is an awkward time where they show scenes of the king and queen of Thailand as a respectful ritual. It only lasted for about 3 minutes. Some people in the theater stood and others remained seated. Kind of weird but it's just part of the experience. Now for the movie! The Barbie movie is in English with Thai subtitles. The exact opposite of the commercials. Pretty strange to watch an English movie in Thailand. It feels wrong that we get out language and everyone else has to read along. So you know how I said we had extremely low expectations? Well it was worse than we thought. Has to be the worst movie on the planet that has ever existed to be honest. Just too corny and just hilariously bad. We had to laugh because our eyes were watching the most ridiculous thing we've ever seen. Once the movie was over, we all agreed it was funny how bad it was. 

After that, we were walking back to our cars and Wah asked Erica and I if we felt like going out for drinks. Again, we are not turning down experiences. So we both brought our kids home, then met at a bar. Of all bars, the name of the bar was Ben's cocktail bar. Ben is an older Thai lady that was very kind to us. We hung out with Wah and talked until midnight when Ben said she had to close. In Thailand, bars are required by law to close at midnight. We thought it was time to go home but Wah said even know it's the law, some bars stay open later. Basically like a game of chicken or cat and mouse. So we went to another bar area where we met another very sweet owner/bartender. I played pool with Wah while Erica watched. At about 1:30, the cops pulled up with the lights on about 300 feet from us. The owner of the bar said we could stay but she had to close the doors and lock us in. The entire front of her bar was garage doors. So they closed all of the garage doors and locked them. Here we were, illegally drinking and playing pool, locked inside of a bar. To be honest, it felt awesome! I felt like we had the inside hookup/invite to an underground bar. We continued to play pool and drink. Then about 45 later she opened a garage door and we headed home.

Wah offered to walk us home. About a 15 minute walk. We prefer to walk to bars instead of drive for obvious reasons. Once we got to the house, Wah went inside the house with us and sat at the kitchen table with the intent of more conversation. That sounded like an excellent plan to us. Once we had all had our fair share of alcohol, more hanging out sounds like a solid plan. The kids were still awake, so they came walking down the stairs. They all seemed very confused that Wah was at our kitchen table. The 6 of us stayed up and talked until I don't know when. After that conversation the kids really started to like Wah. Cali especially has taken a liking to her and said she wants to bring Wah home with us lol. She really is the nicest and kindest lady you could ever meet and holds up to good conversation. Eventually she called a "Bolt" for a ride home. The end of a very entertaining night especially since it all started with a Barbie movie.