Tantalizing Thailand II
Trip Start
Sep 06, 2004
1
9
23
Trip End
Aug 28, 2005
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Khon Kaen, Thailand
Saturday, December 4, 2004
Well we had a nice flight into Bangkok and we were slightly delayed for our trip to Khon Kaen. Guess that is normal!! for these budget airlines. (Khon Kaen is just 1hr south of the map pin) Arrived to find Bryce at the airport happily waiting! Drove into Khon Kaen that for some reason was much bigger than what either of us thought it was going to be. Not sure why, but thought it was going to be around the size of Lethbridge and it was much larger!! Bryce + Frances + Ford(3 months old!) have opened up a cafe called Kiwi Cafe'. It was great and Dave's eyes bugged out of his head when he seen ginger crunch and anzac cookies!! A whole bunch of NZ treats and for someone who has been travelling and not getting alot of home cooked treats, this was a slice of heaven! They have done a fabulous job on the cafe and it was very inviting! We spent many a day or evening there enjoying the coffees and treats they had to offer. Highly recommended if you are up that way in Thailand. We spent a couple of days here to start and just got our bearings. We toured around the private school that Frances teaches kindergarten at. Very fancy! Boys didn't have the urge to go back to school though! Funny that eh!? Well, our hosts had to be hosts and had more company coming for the weekend, so they suggested a short train ride up to Nong Khai, which is a small town on the border of Thailand and Laos. Across the Mekong River which ran through the town, you could see the captial city of Laos, Vientiane. We took the afternoon train up and there was heaps of harvesting of rice going on, so we seen all the people out in the fields working. We arrived at about 5pm and knew where we wanted to stay so a tuk-tuk(3 wheeled motorbike with a carriage like compartment on the back) took us into town to the guest house. Wonder where all the coconut husks from all over the world go after you crack it open? Well, we figured out that they put them into mattress' and say they are comfortable! NOT!! More like cement, Dave kept saying he had slept on ground softer than this bed... oh well!! We also found out that Nong Khai is different from alot of other places around Thailand and at 6pm everything starts to shut down , therefore we decided to eat supper at our hotel.
The next day started off with another ride on tuk-tuk to a Wat where this bloke had made a number of different statues and HUGE ones!! We had a great time roaming around these. Boys thought most where quite neat and silly, as one had an Elephant that was being chased by a number of dogs in cars,trucks, with guns and swords etc. Another had a huge snake coiled around with 7 heads! Strange man this chap!! When we got back we noticed a market by our guest house so we went to check it out! It was great! You could really bargain with people and if you were way out with your prices, they just wouldn't barter anymore. They didn't seem to rip you off to start with either. There were a few times earlier in Thailand, where shop keepers would start off at some astronomical price and you would have to realize that and offer them like 1/4 and then go from there. But you felt ripped off that they started so high... it wasn't like that here, they were reasonable to start with. It was fairly hot up here so we always enjoyed a shake with crushed ice and flavors like lemon or pineapple. Something we found unusual though, was the orange juice that looked yummy and you would think would be great,... was SALTY!! They think that salt brings out the flavor of the fruit, YUCK! Also, we got eaten alive up here. We don't even know by what but there was some sort of invisible bug that liked our Canadian blood! Our next day we walked half way over an interesting bridge, called the Friendship Bridge. It was built with money from Australia for the people of Thailand and Laos, in hopes that they would build a railway between the two countries to link them. Unfortunately, Thailand held up there part of the bargain, but Laos didn't, so the train tracks go exactly half way across the bridge. Literally!! They go half way and actually stop! Amazing that! We really splurged and bought a 3rd class ticket back to Khon Kaen... think it cost 3$ CAD for all 4 of us to ride 3 hours on a bumpity train back. It was good fun being in Khon Kaen with these friends too as they both spoke Thai and that really helped when you went out and didn't have the slightest idea of what you were ordering! They would usually order a pile of dishes and we would all just taste each one! One night we ate for 450 Baht,(13.50 $CAD) for 7 adults and two kids to eat, and be full!! We now realize why so many people ate out! Cheap eh! And good!
Well, Dave's muscles and moving abilities were put to good use when our friend needed to shift houses. (So Jeanette, even though you didn't get to use him, someone did!!) I ,unfortunately needed to keep close tabs on the toilet that day to make sure no one stole it or it slipped away, as I was the only one so far on the trip that ended up with the trots!!
Glad we were somewhere familiar though, as it puts you out for the whole day and then some.
On our final day in Khon Kaen, we made it up to the 9th level on a Buddhist Wat. What a fantastic view of the city you got from there! And the Wat was amazing! They even did wood carvings on the doors of all the levels and not just a simple carving, but amazing ones, about 3 inches thick. We left that night after dinner,(just about missed the bus!) for a 10 hour bus ride west to Chaing Mai!
