Bangkok (Round 2)

We came back to Bangkok after Chiang Dao to meet up with a couple American friends who were in town.

It was great to connect with Sam, whom I'd become friends with as fellow recruiters. She had just moved to Bangkok this year as a high school guidance counselor - a career move that many recruiters in my (former) field set in their sights. It also just so happened that a tour group of recruiters was coming through Bangkok and visiting Sam's school, so she arranged a dinner and we got to meet with *several* old friends of mine, and they got to finally meet Chloe, which was all a great delight.

Another highlight was reconnecting with Zack, one of my best friends ever and former bandmate from our Bloomington days. Zack moved to China in 2017 for a teaching job right as I was starting my travel job for IU, and was in Bangkok for an international education conference. In addition to a few meals and drinks together, we stumbled into an opportunity on our last night in town to not only play but *perform* music together at a club/bar we visited. The entertainment that night was a band of local guys doing a mighty fine job covering classic Western hits like Pink Floyd and Hendrix.

After taking some requests from the crowd, they asked if anyone wanted to join them on stage to sing. Somewhat jokingly, Zack asked if we could play, too, and to our surprise, they said "sure!" So we hopped up and borrowed guitars from the two frontmen, and suggested the most popular song we knew to play together-- Sweet Virginia, by the Rolling Stones. Though the rhythm section said they didn't know that particular song, they sure knew the Stones, and eagerly pulled up the chords/lyrics on their phones and away we went!

It certainly was far from a polished performance on our part, but what a thrill to play with a group again, and on-stage, no less! Before that night I hadn't spent much time playing the little travel guitar I'd lugged around with me all this way, but that really reignited my craving for music, and I've picked it up far more frequently since then.Läs mer