Travel days are always interesting. You get to go from some place where you are comfortable to some place you have never been before, and in the process there are a lot of transfers from taxis, buses, planes, and trains. The whole time you can feel the excitement about getting away and seeing that new part of the world, but at the same time you have to squeeze into tight spaces, and spend time with a bunch of your instant friends who are also going through the same experience. And when you finally get to your destination, you want to drop everything off and go explore, but you do not have enough time to really dig into the new location and check out what the place has to offer.
What I like to do with this short amount of time before I really start to enjoy the place I find myself in is to find the center of town and start to wander. Any place that looks interesting is a place I will stop at, have a bite to eat, and a drink, and get a little more comfortable with the area. This brings me to the best marketing strategy that a restaurant can do to bring in those random stragglers, name it after a really popular name.
We have all seen the places. I have seen my fair share of them, and on my first night in Chiang Mai, I ran into another one, John’s Place. I went with my first instinct to get my picture with the sign to show to everybody that I know that I somehow now own a restaurant in this small corner of the world. But then I found out that the place had a rooftop bar, so I had to take the experience one step further, and go upstairs to eat and have a drink.
It wasn’t like the rooftop bars that I can find in Bangkok, but it was the perfect place to spend a part of this cool evening. I was given a place that overlooked the moat that was at one time dug out. I got to watch the other travelers that I had found themselves in a different part of the world as they explored as well, and enjoy some spring rolls. But I also wondered if I would have stopped here if the place was not called John’s Place. I might have, but the fact that I had that small strange connection with the place made the choice that much easier.
I started to look around at the other patrons that night, and started to wonder how many of them shared the same name that I had, and had also fallen for the same marketing scheme. There had to be at least one John at each of the tables. It also made me think how many times I had ended up in places that had the name John in the title or at least JC (there is a JC in Bend, Oregon and I have been there a couple of times, partly because of the name). Would I make the same choice again the next time I came across a John’s Place, or has the realization allowed me to grow as an individual and not be so easily manipulated.
In all reality probably not. So the next time you hear that I am in town, just stop at your local John’s because you know that is where you will find me.
John Collings 