Operation Origin: Chinese BBQ and hospitality at it's finest

18.11.2014

Our resort's general manager, his family and the resort staff.

Today is the day of the big barbeque party that our resort's general manager called Jamie, had invited us to couple of days before. We had no idea what's the occation but we felt honoured because we were the only customers that had been asked to come. We thought it was just a nice gesture from them, for us and for the resort staff.

We woke up pretty late but luckily we already knew where to find a good gift for the manager and the staff. They invited us so we had to go get them something nice in excange. We exit the bungalow and saw that they already had set up a giant barbeque grill in front of the restaurant and everyone was running around, getting the party started. All of the staff seemed happy and exited for the incoming party.

We took a songthaew to the Ringping shopping mall maybe 1km away from the resort. We got there fairly quick which was good, because the party would start soon. I went to get some bird's nest soup and Make and Milla went to get some flowers. They couldn't believe their eyes when there was only two bouquets made from real flowers, all of the others were made from plastic.
Like "What do you do for living? - I sell plastic flowers at the florist's". Each for their own, I guess. We also had some finnish "Turkin Pippuri" -candy to give them so we think we had it all covered.

Getting a songthaew back was much harder than to the other way and we had to wait for a good 15 minutes to get one. On the way the songthaew picked up some people and we had to wait while they were dropped at the airport on the way, 'cos that's how songthaews work, unless you pay them extra to take only you from a point A to point B. While we were stuck in the traffic at the lights, Milla saw something you might not see everyday in Thailand. Out of nowhere some dude ran from the bushes with no clothes on. He just ran across a parking lot and disappeared after that. Who knows what's the story behind that, and do we even want to know...

Finally we got back to the resort and they all came to greet us. We gave our gifts to Jamie, and told them that it was a little show of gratitude for them inviting us to the party. They seemed touched for us to bring them gifts, but it was the least we could do. We felt like our gifts hit the spot and we recommend everyone to bring something special from their own country, it really impresses the people you give them to. Nothing is more unique gift than something you brought all the way from across the globe.

Jamie, the resort's general manager with the huge grill and all sorts of seafood and other goodies.

No shortage of bewerage, just the way we like it!

We were escorted to the table and were served with Chang beer, fresh fruits and salted nuts. They told us with a twinkle in their eye, that all the drinks and food was on the house. Not bad!
We sat just the three of us in the table, confused from all that was going on. There was only the resort staff and the managers family members and friends. We couldn't believe how lucky we were to be invited.

While we were drinking the first beers and eating nuts, they brought some beef to the table. The beef was the most tender and mouth watering meat we've ever had! It was grilled medium minus, sliced to thin slices and served as is.

Nuts, fruits, beef and Tom Yam Goong -soup.

The staff told us that we could just go on and pick anything we want from the grill, but as Finnish as we are, we desided to sit for a while and drink some more. Next up was the Tom Yam Goong -soup. All of the food tasted great and you could tell all the different tastes. We were used to good food in Chiang Mai, but this was over the top!

After we finished our drinks we had enough courage to go talk to the people and eat with them. All of the sudden everyone started putting the tables together to form one big festive table and they asked us to come sit with them.

Love all these happy happy people!

There was so much food, more than anyone of us could consume and Jamie just kept on cooking more. It was so nice to see that the guy who runs all this and is so well respected, showed his gratitude to his employees by cooking to them and throwing this party. The owner and his family are Chinese so that makes it even more impressive, knowing how much they respect their superiors and how strict the hierarchy is there. We also found out that only Thai working there were the chef and the resort taxi van driver, all the other were Chinese.

While we were eating more beef and all the creatures of the sea, we learned that the "beef" we were eating, was actually beef tongue. Wow, so tender and tasty and what I've heard it's super expensive!

After this image in our minds, Make desided he'd had enough of it. We also had squid, shrimps. Milla also had her first clams, cooked in the grill, opened and topped up with green fish sauce.

While the night was falling and the party went on, eating turned in to a friendly drinking game, where everytime someone was served a drink, they had to finish it when they yelled "cheers" in Chinese. After a few gintonics and many beers, we could only be suprised how much they could drink! We also taught them "cheers" in Finnish (Kippis) and we would hear it many times that night.

It was nice to see how all of them were happy and you could see the community, hospitality and nonchalance in them.

Such fun, much drink. Wow!

Milla with the ladies.

Jamie had done his cookings and joined the others for drinks. He had heard about our trip and that we didn't have any particular plans, except for to go to Nakhon Si Thammarat to Milla's origins. He asked if we wanted to get to China, one of his friend and sister was going to drive there through Laos and they would be happy to give us a free ride. They had more resorts in mainland China too. They would leave at 26th of December and we promised to think about their offer. It would be an unique chance to get to China with some locals, but we couldn't say for sure because all our plans was still open and we had no idea of which part of Thailand we would be at that time. Nevertheless we were totally suprised and honoured for the offer!

Kippis!

The night was late and it was still hot, not sure if it was the laughing, the eating or the drinks or all of the above. It was time to take a dip in the resort swimming pool. The managers sister was the only one to come with us but we had a ton of fun! She told us that she can't swim but the pool was only about 120cm deep and Make promised to teach her how to swim. We love that they have their own pool at the resort, because there's no ocean or beaches in Chiang Mai, so a little dip in the pool every now and then cools you up pretty good.

At some point Jamie came by the pool. For some drunken idea of the employees, Jamie ended up in the pool too, fully clothed with his iPhone and wallet on him. We could see him grabbing his pockets mid-air and that's when we realised that he wasn't going to have a phone anymore.

A quick dip in the pool with the rice hat on.

It was time to go change on some dry clothes. The party was closing to it's end. Everyone was full and a bit tipsy so it was time for the people to check out. We got in dry clothes and went to thank the staff and Jamie for an amazing party. It was so nice that the taxi driver who drove us to Viengping couple of times were there too. It was also nice to meet Jamie's family and friends too, they're beautiful and lovely people. Us Finnish people have so much to learn from their hospitality.

When we met the chef and the others in front of the restaurant, they were already waiting for a ride home. We told them that we would go across the road to The Next Bar to play pool, they said we were crazy to even think of drinking more after that party. But hey, we Finnish!
After The Next Bar we went back to the resort to get ready for tommorow. we would start packing and getting ready for Bangkok and Make's big 30 year birthday!