Making All My Karaoke Dreams Come True--One Country At a Time

I will dominate! Mark my words. I will make the magic happen. You heard me alright. My quest to sing karaoke in every Asian country I visit is quickly coming to fruition. To be honest, I didn't even know this was a goal until I was knee deep into the game.

My first foray into the Asian karaoke scene was in China. We found a karaoke bar that was not a thinly-veiled prostitution front (as are, apparently, the norm) in Beijing. It was called "Happy Bar", catered to Australian ex-pats, and was decorated with enormous murals of Che Guevara's visage. The staff's uniform? Che shirts. Oh yes, and there was a stripper pole in the middle of the stage which my brother used rather adeptly during one of his performances. Random? Definitely. Too much? Never.

My second? Japan. After much convincing, I dragged my friends to the same karaoke bar that Scarlett Johanssen and Bill Murray went to in "Lost in Translation". I had to promise that we would only stay for an hour. At first, my companions refused to sing, thus making it L-A-M-E. Then, the spirit of song made its way into their hearts, and they later admitted that an extra hour would have been nice.

Thailand brought the karaoke to me. While were were in Kanchanaburi, we spent one night on a raft, which was kind of like a floating barge. Three large rafts were tied together and pulled by a speed boat. The back raft was a sunbathing spot, where we tied intertubes and floated along with the barge. The middle raft was our sleeping quarters, bathroom, and kitchen. The front raft was our dining room during the day, and our disco at night--complete with fog and lights.

During the day we made stops at a couple pretty impressive temples that required us to walk up 300 or so steps to reach. When night fell, we had dinner, and our karaoke-loving host set up the karaoke lounge. Later we would find that he opens up every karaoke set with "Hotel California". At first, we were the only two participants, but it didn't take long to get the whole gang on board. At 10pm, the karaoke abruptly stopped and we were suddenly thrust into a bizarre disco for about 20 minutes. The smoke machine, disco ball, and lights were a bit excessive considering the fact that only three people were dancing (mostly out of a deep sense of responsbility to make our hosts feel that their efforts were appreciated), but it was fun nonetheless.

And with that, I checked off another karaoke destination. Cambodia and Laos are coming up, and I suspect they might be a bit trickier. Time will tell!