I'm still in Chiang Mai!

One of the dudes from Mae Sot became ill and has been recuperating in Chiang Mai, which has given me the perfect excuse to stay here longer. I also got my Laos visa this week. And now the weekend is upon me, so even more of a reason to stay in Chiang Mai!
So what is there to do here? Well, I've been eating good food -- a little Mexican, Italian, Indian, and Mediterranean. I've gone mall crawling, got a Thai massage (no shady business), and bought some souvenirs.
I also ventured into a strip club (for investigational purposes), which was an interesting experience. This is the shady part of SE Asian travel that I had heard about! The "club" has a stage with a bunch of women dressed in negligees dancing like the Robert Palmer girls. They are totally expressionless. It is not just a little creepy. They have numbers pin to them, and you can request one of them over to your table. You get to chat them up, and if you want to, you can pay the "bar fine" to relieve them of their responsibilities for the rest of the night. Then anything else that happens is up to you and the girl. No, I didn't get further than sitting in the corner with my friends, sipping orange juices, and not getting any love from the ladies. Was it the orange juice, the fact that I was the only Asian tourist there, or the fact that we didn't look like a bunch of overweight wankers trawling for ho's? I guess I'll never know. Back in the States, the strippers put on a pretty good show because that's the limit of the action. In Thailand, they don't put on ANY show, because they want you to buy them for the night. Wierd.
We also went to a couple bars where the bar girls would call out to my Americano friends but wouldn't give me any eye contact. Wierd how that is.
I already mentioned the numerous transvestites as bar girls and bartenders. Just like riding a motorbike in Thailand, the best policy is to play it cool, like Fonzie.
Okay, I realize this may breach the whole PG-rating of this blog, but this is the type of stuff my friends want to hear about. Go figure.