An Unexpected Lunch Date

Yesterday, Brandon and I decided we wanted Thai rice dishes for lunch. We knew a couple areas to find good rice based street food for dinner, but weren't sure what we'd find for lunch. We wandered down our street to the next one where we'd seen some food carts, tables, and chairs on the shady side of the street. We walked past about six options before deciding that the first street cart looked the best and had the rice dishes that we were craving. However, all their signage was in Thai making it more intimidating. We walked over again and prepared to try to communicate. We didn't have to try that hard; the woman running the place just handed us a laminated page with English on it. Success! 

We ordered fried basil chicken and pork in red sauce, both on rice. I went to get us some water while we waited for our food. As I was ladling out the water from a jug into cups a kind Thai gentleman came up and helped me balance both cups. He then gathered his own water and joined us at our table. In broken English he carried out a conversation with us. When learning we were from America he talked animatedly about football and basketball mentioning Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan, and how large football players are. We learned that he was from Chiang Rai and was spending a year doing work at a temple in Chiang Mai traveling back and forth at the end of each week. As we were chatting, we were surprised to see little cups of ice cream topped with syrup and peanuts show up in front of us. We hadn't ordered these. But our new friend had and indicated that we were to eat them and did not need to pay for them. It was on him. So nice! 

It seemed like our new friend frequented this restaurant often. He mentioned his favorite dishes to us. When his dish arrived he put an alarming amount of hot peppers on top of it. He just smiled at our worried faces and ate with gusto. The heat didn't seem to faze him though he did start sweating profusely towards the end. Our dishes arrived and we ate them sans hot peppers. We all were provided flavorful soup broth with our lunch as well. 

When finishing his food he looked at his watch, indicated that he had to get back to the temple very soon, and then quickly left on his motorbike. We finished our food and savored our ice cream chuckling over the fun of randomly meeting this friendly Thai man. 

When finished we went to pay only to find out that our new friend had paid for our lunch too! What a generous surprise! It was quite an unexpected experience and a lovely moment of community. Ironic because Brandon and I were just talking about how we didn't think we'd experience as much community in Chiang Mai as in Melbourne. We were proven wrong. While this wasn't a long lasting relationship, but it was still community. Welcome to Chiang Mai!