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Was planning on going up the mountain today to Doi Suthep but it was a loose idea as never know what the weather will be like. Was aiming to head late afternoon. When I changed my bandage my foot was rather blue, a moment of concern until i realised it was the colouring from the cheap flips rubbing off onto my feet. Pah, what should I expect for £2. As I headed out for lunch the owner (don't know his name and too much time has passed to ask) said it was ok to go to Pai as the flood water had gone but thinking about the clean up operation and the probable overcrowding in non-flooded guesthouses decided to let that idea float away (sorry). After lunch had my usual afternoon nap and when I awoke it was getting on so decided to leave Doi Suthep for another day. That eve headed out to find a vegetarian restaurant that was in a guide book- when I got there it was empty and didn't look too promising, had some nibbles from the street vendors instead. Went into Pinte's Blues Bar - tiny wooden shack with about 6 tables. The owner resembled a native American rather than a Thai. As I sat and soaked up some Son House the owner kept turning the music off for a couple of minutes, then back on again. Around the third time of doing it he announced to everyone that the 'copyright police' were outside taking photos of his bar. He explained that the music companies come in now and again saying he must pay to play the music....well, I've heard of entertainment licenses but this sounded strange. He said he used to have copies CD's but he recently purchased only originals - the CD's looked 10-15 years old.
I couldn't see where or who these music police were but after he was happy they had gone, he kicked it back in with Robert Johnson. 2 policemen on a scooter drove past and instantly the music stopped again, he came rushing out "see? see? Now they call police, I saw them, turn music off quickly" - the real cops had driven straight past the bar and had gone into a bar up the road. After they had left, music back on. When I was paying up he was explaining that they come in extorting money - he showed me a letter with some random companies logos as the top. He said he checked online and those companies only deal with pop, dance etc. - he still seemed very paranoid about it all though. Felt real bad for the guy but with my very limited Thai and his limited English I couldn't really try and explain that no company that distributed blues music (or any music really) would have secret music police on patrol in Chiang Mai and in fact it is likely a below the belt scam of squeezing money out vulnerability. I did try to show him my IPod and say if he were to put his music on there, they're is no way of knowing who distributed that song, but I think he thought I was just showing off my gizmo.
Stoke were playing 2nd leg in Europe that evening kick off was midnight Thai time, I headed back to the hotel as was contemplating trying to find somewhere open late showing the game. 3 Dutch folk who were staying at the hotel invited me to play a game, the one where your given a small amount of info/scene and you have to gather what happened through yes/no questions. After a few beers it was getting close to midnight but scrapped the footy idea (it wasn't even on tv in the uk). We won which is the main thing.
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