Quizzers

One thing we enjoyed about Phuket last trip was Quiz Night at the Irish pub in the mall by us. We even got second place and won 1,000 baht the second time we played, so we felt that the gods were with us for our rematch.

As we walked into a bookstore in order to peruse magazines from home, we spotted the headline on The Phuket News:

RIP DJ Doris.

We looked at each other and thought the name sounded familiar. Mike then realized that this guy was the quizmaster at the Quiz Nights we attended back in 2010, and he was recently killed in a motorbike accident. Sad.

We soldiered on and proceeded to the pub that night. Quiz Night started at 8pm, and we didn’t realize the “buy one, get one free” drink specials began then too. We got there about 25 minutes early and were hounded by the bar staff to order something. Hanna finally ordered fries. When the clock struck 8, Mike ordered something he had never heard of: a Harvey Wallbanger (vodka, orange juice, and Galliano). Hanna made fun of Mike for ordering a girly drink, but it was quite delicious because it tasted like an Orange Julius. It also came in a glass that looked like a naked woman. No, we don’t have a good picture of it. Sorry.

Quiz Night was five rounds of ten questions each: Potluck, Thai Provinces, Art & Literature, Fashion, and Same Names. You could pick a round that you would receive double points on all correct answers. We battled between Art & Literature (Mike) and Fashion (Hanna). The woman finally won as she pointed out that most of the teams were crusty old men.

Potluck was harder than expected, and clearly we kicked ass at Thai provinces. The young British quizmaster pointed out to us that most of the old British guys had Thai girlfriends at home, yet they didn’t do too well on Thai provinces. Made us laugh. We got nine out of ten questions right on Art & Literature but only five out of ten questions right on Fashion. See, you should always trust Mike’s judgment.

Before the final round, the scores were updated. We were second out of six teams. There was hope. Sad to say, but most people used their double points on the last round. We ended up in fourth place. Whomp whomp…

Last Full Day in Thailand

Crazy that our time o’ relaxation here is done. We are glad we came back to Phuket to do nothing. It was nice to just be for a while. Our days were all essentially the same: wake up late, go to the beach or pool, eat rolls and Dairy Queen, watch TV on our computer, peruse the shelves of the huge grocery store, nap, and watch shows on the actual TV. (We found ourselves watching shows we never watch at home because they replay the same shows all the time. We have never watched so much Rachael Ray, Law & Order, The Rachel Zoe Project, Three Rivers, and Desperate Housewives in our lives.)

We spent the majority of today running errands. We needed to restock our toiletries and decided to do it here because everything is pretty damn cheap. Here’s hoping we have enough toothpaste to last us for months! (Deodorant for Mike was also on the list. Not found. Here’s hoping he doesn’t smell too rank.)

We also went to see Harry Potter again because Wednesdays are discount movie day at our local cineplex. (Cineplex meaning five or six screens.) 2 tickets and a huge popcorn cost us about $8 total. Awesome. The movie was as good the second time. We never go to see movies twice in the theaters, but we couldn’t resist when it’s that cheap.

Mike didn’t go to the bathroom at the movie theater last time. This time he did. He’s glad that he did. In the men’s bathroom were huge decals above the urinals that said “Shoot ‘Em Up.” Accompanying said decals were stick figure illustrations of men peeing..and the big red and green dots of pee were bouncing everywhere. In the urinals themselves were different targets: soccer goals, bullseyes, carnival shooting games, and (the best) sperm that said “Hi, Daddy! Forget Me Not!” So bizarre. So extremely bizarre.

Our last night in Phuket was capped by our second stab at Quiz Night. Eleven teams played, and we are proud to say we nabbed second place. We were the only team of two and were competing against groups of British regulars. We were shocked we did so well…we even did okay on the sports round. We were awarded a 1,000 baht (about $33) food/beverage voucher. We had not eaten dinner yet, so we were excited about the prospect of a huge meal. Unfortunately the kitchen had already closed, and all we could order was dessert or drinks. After an apple crumble, brownie, two beers, and a ridiculously expensive girly dessert cocktail for Mike, our voucher was spent. We have to get up early tomorrow for our flight to Singapore, so we didn’t want to spend it all on alcohol.  We are quite proud of ourselves for doing so well, and we hope to bring our Quiz Night skills back with us to New York next year.

Rainy Beach and Quiz Night

Well, we made it out of our room by 1pm. That’s a feat.

The beach was our destination, and we headed to the same set of beach chairs as last time. The kooky old massage lady immediately remembered us and said to Mike, “Oh!!! You come back! You get massage this time!” She then rubbed Mike’s shoulders and exclaimed, “You get massage today!” Being an equal-opportunity groper, she then patted Hanna’s arm too. We politely refused, and she went along her way.

We enjoyed about an hour of beach time before the skies started looking like this:

Threatening.

We’ve never seen the beach empty so quickly. Seeking cover under the massage lady’s huge umbrella, we decided to wait it out:

Mist. All of These Chairs Were Full Minutes Ago.

The downpour stopped ten minutes later, so we returned to our chairs. We were too optimistic: it started raining again shortly thereafter. We called it a day, got some lunch, and headed back to our room to nap.

Our big night out was Quiz Night at an Irish pub. The host was the famous DJ Doris. We totally expected a haggard-looking, busted old woman, but it turned out to be a tall, skinny Scottish guy. There were five rounds of ten questions. We kicked ass on the movie theme song round, but we didn’t do so hot on the 2010 World Cup or Famous Battle rounds.

The bonus round question happened to be about Mike’s most recent employer. Don’t worry: we got it right immediately. (It was quite odd because Hanna had previously joked that it would be funny if there was a question about said workplace.)

No, we didn’t win, but we managed to eke out sixth place out of ten teams. Not too shabby considering we did horribly on two of the rounds.

Here Comes the Rain

Yesterday it rained. Hard. The whole day long. We now know that November is not the greatest time to be in the Thai islands. If you are casually considering a trip here for some beach weather, you might want to pick another month.

We headed down the hill into town for brunch and a trip to the beach. Only one of those plans was successful. As we were eating our breakfast for lunch, the rain began…and didn’t stop for a break at all until 1am. We sat in the restaurant playing cards for a while, but we couldn’t really remember the exact rules of Spit. Instead we watched this asshole order an alcoholic fruit shake while the rain poured down:

Lookin' Good, Bub.

Our trip to the beach wasn’t going to happen, so we wasted a lot of the day at a bookstore…until they kicked us out. Thanks, ladies. Obviously you guys have never been to Barnes & Noble where you can spend the whole day browsing the selection.

We decided to brave the rain and head back up to our little cottage:

Not the Nicest Place We've Ever Stayed.

Once back inside our cozy little shack, we played lots of Spider Solitaire on the computer and finally finished watching We Can Be Heroes (the precursor to Chris Lilley’s Summer Heights High). Watch the latter immediately if you’ve never seen it. Hilarious.

We needed dinner, so we headed back out once again to a pub for food and Quiz Night. The questions were a lot more general and less Brit-centric than in Chiang Mai. We ended up in third place…only losing by two stupid points to the tied first and second place teams. A reward of sambuca shots were offered, and Mike did both. God, licorice is gross. We ended the night by chatting with two British guys (one of whom was a dead-ringer for Hurley from Lost). Somehow we stayed out until 1:30am. Late for us.

Quiz Night, Cool Pants, and Rain

After Mike’s adventures with his newfound elephant friends, we headed off to a British pub for Quiz Night. We had eaten there once before, and the food was surprisingly good. We weren’t sure if there would be anybody there or not because when we walked by the night before, the place was deserted. To our huge surprise, the place was packed.

As soon as we received the page of Famous Faces we had to identify, we knew we were the underdogs. Pretty much all of the 20 were people that we assumed were British. Luckily the two thirty-something Brits next to us helped us out, slyly Googling the answers. After two more rounds of twenty questions, we ended up in a respectable eighth place out of fourteen teams. Not too shabby for two dumb Americans. (We definitely would have been in last place without the help of our Brits.)

Our last day in Chiang Mai was a lazy one. We slept in, packed up, and had a lunch of surprisingly good burgers and fries. The name of the restaurant? Mike’s. It HAD to be good. We had a post-lunch session of massages, and this is the first time we had to change into their clothes:

Awesome Pants.

As we were getting our massages, the rain started to come down…and come down it did. Because we had a flight to catch, we were forced to run home the half-mile from the massage parlor. When we got to the street where we were staying, we were shocked to find actual flood waters. Parts of the street had water up to our knees. We zigged and zagged down the street until we got to our guesthouse, and we were ridiculously drenched. We hailed a truck and were off to the airport.

Once we had checked our bags and went through security, we were both FREEZING. Hanna attempted to take a nap and ate some Frosted Flakes, while Mike played on the computer. The flight was uneventful, but we highly recommend Bangkok Air. During the ONE HOUR flight, we were offered coffee, tea, orange juice, and water, and we were given a turkey sandwich on delicious bread. We made it back to Bangkok in one piece, and it feels great returning to a familiar place.

Thumbs Up, Han Tang Inn

We spent a quick three nights in Xi’an and have adapted to China a bit better. The staring didn’t occur as much (it never goes away though), and we didn’t get the same dirty vibe as in parts of Beijing. Besides the city wall and Terracotta Warriors, the absolute highlight of Xi’an was our hostel, Han Tang Inn.

This has definitely been the most social place we have stayed at so far. A lot of that was due to the communal seating area complete with bar/restaurant:

Relaxing Hanna. (The Place Had Way More Tables Than This Too.)

Hanna was excited to pay about $3 for a huge portion of French toast. Yes, she ate it every morning. Upon check-in each person receives a free ticket for a beer and a coffee. For some odd reason, we received two tickets each for beer and coffee. Mike was glad to enjoy 2 huge beers two nights in a row, as well as a cup of good coffee each of the four mornings.

The place also had a pool table (which we never used), a roof garden (which we briefly looked at but were too hot to sit in), and a bevy of nightly activities. One night was live music night in which one staff member played a guitar for a while. We felt bad because most people didn’t really listen to him.

The next evening entailed trivia night. We thought we would team up and kick ass, but all of the guests were mixed up on different teams. Most of the trivia was about the hostel, Xi’an, or general China. Hanna’s team came in fourth….out of four teams. Mike’s team was victorious. He won a Terracotta soldier. Depending on backpack capacity, this may be given as a gift to someone along the way.

The final night was a dumpling party where we got to fill our own dumplings. Pretty fun to learn about the process of making them:

Dumpling Enthusiasts.

They held a contest for most original dumpling. Mike’s entry was a smiley face where the nose was filled with leeks and onions:

Unfortunately This Dumpling Didn’t Win. Shocking, Huh?

The best part of the dumpling party was getting to eat our creations. We had plates and plates full of them. All totally free.

We highly recommend the Han Tang Inn to anyone traveling to Xi’an. Book your flight now.