Savadikap .. (part 3)

Might as well finish the post. Moving on to day 4 of my trip. On Sunday, we decided to skip all the day time workshops from the Conference and go do some shopping instead. Eddie suggested we should go to this weekend market called Chattuchat or JJ , the local calls it , which for once i thought it was Jaya Jusco or something . darn. Anyway we woke up pretty much earlier and got ourselves to wait for somenoe to pick us up from the university to fetch us to town center. Then while waiting only i got to know the girl we are waiting for is actually someone who met cher in Chiang Mai during his Unit Asia tour with the japanese couple of months back. How nice of her..

I dont remember the girl's name ... but anyway she was late and by the time she got to the uni it was almost like 10am .. and her driving a pretty old model Nissan car , all 5 of us had to squeeeze into the car ... and guess what ... cher being the biggest size of all , gets to sit in front comfortably, while grace and i had to squeeze at the back with the other 2 guys... at times we got so crammed up that Martin began to make irritated movements and we tried to adjust ourselves but found no place to move around at all .. Grace was practically squeezed to the window of the car, i had to sit straight up front already almsot kissing the front seat, while Martin was squeezed in the middle of us and Eddie was pushed to the other edge of the car that if you open the door he'll just fall out anytime.

But at times i do felt like a parasite .... you know, if it hadn't for grace and i tagging along the guys would've had more fun i think coz they know each other so well... but anyway they didn't complain a single word and that is why i love hanging out with guys so much more. Haahah... really they heck care about these things. Anyway back to JJ.. we stopped somewhere in a public car park in town and took the underground train (like KTM) and after many stations we stopped and there was JJ. We split up going our seperate ways and meet up after about 1 hour half later.

Honestly there was not enough time to shop there.... the market is just too big we could spend the whole day there. The things are really good stuffs and cheap. I bought some shirts and grace bought hers too... ironically the thai girl who brought us out bought more stuffs than any of us! aaahhaha after meeting each other again we left and wanted to rush back for a drum workshop which Martin was anticipating to attend , but suddenly we decided to make a change ... we decided to go for another round of massage instead. haahaha

We drove the this place called Khao San and stopped by one of those massage parlours and got ourselves a Thai Massage ... only 180 baht for one hour! HOW CHEAP! My first time doing this kind of massage and it was cool .. i almost doze off until the lady asked me to sit up. Eiiisshh but it did relief my tensed left shoulder though. great one. After massage we left and walked around the streets with lots of things to sell , seomthing similar to Petaling Street... and we ate and ate and shop along the way too... eddie - shopaholic. ahahaha

After the short trip walking around , we left and drove back to the university. It was already almost 6pm ... then we took a short rest , got ourselves refreshed ... and met once again for dinner. This time Chee Meng came to join us for dinner and after dinner we went back for the night performances in the main stage ... and this time the performances only got better. The Mahidol faculty band played really well , followed by Nial Djuliarso's band ... played really old school american jazz (though their his compositions) .. it was really good stuff.. UNTIL he invited his friend this lady singer to come up stage and start singing ... all of us got turned off and took a toilet break. Hahahaha... her voice .. gosh ..... no further comments.

After their band, then it was Ron Miles' band .. that was the BEST band by far of the 3 days ... the kind of jazz they play... super super modern .. exploring different things each instrument can do.. at one point i thought i was hearing some lady screaming or what but actually it was Ron Miles' blowing the trumpet in a new technique. Then we even saw the drummer crashing mineral bottles and tearing papers under the mic to get those sounds ... gosh ... amazing. The solos were all well thought pleasant listening melodies , new theme after new themes coming out that each song sounds like a super well written composition instead of a jazz standard. COOL... By the end of the night there was only myslef , grace and eddie left ... the rest left us. BUt it was an awesome experience ... though we were shivering like CRAZY in the middle of the field (It was the COLDEST of the nights we were there) but the music just made us all stayed on ..

After the band over , we went to grab Ron Miles' autographs and take pictures with them ... i bought his CDs and he signed it. How nice.. He even allowed eddie to touch his one in a million, actually ONE AND ONLY special made Trumpet in G with his name carved on it ... i can imagine what an experience it must be for Eddie; a fellow trumpeter. Anyway after that , we left with spirits on HIGH and went back to bed. That was it ... end of the Thailand Jazz Conference ... what a great experience. The music i heard there .. was trully shocking and amazing. Beyond description , never know Thailand has MOVED WAY AHEAD of us Malaysians in terms of jazz and with those americans' great jazz musicians invited to perform , it just made me so want to FLY FAR FAR AWAY from Msia like NOW. Next up, final day.....