New Year's Weekend in Nong Khai

Monday, 3 January 2005

Did you know that you can get all sorts of things delivered to your house on a moto? On Friday night, New Year's Eve, after a long sixteen hour bus ride on Thursday night, we had barbeque delivered to Aw's family's house. And I'm talking the raw meat, seafood, hot coals burning in a pot, and the frying pan delivered by a guy on a moto with an attached cart. I've eaten this type of food here before, the Thai version of grilling or barbequing, but usually people go to the market and get the food themselves. It was a Kodak moment for sure! We were famished, having not eaten for nearly 24 hours, being on the bus for so long. Anyone that knows me knows I always carry around extra snacks and treats, especially when I travel, as I have to eat almost every couple hours. But, I kept wondering why Aw and her boyfriend and cousin weren't eating my snacks. Then Aw said it would just make her thirsty and she didn't want to have to go to the bathroom. Ah, good point! So, after that, I stopped snacking so much, and just tried to fall asleep on the musty, bumpy bus ride.

But, when everyone who is anyone in Thailand is traveling during the 4 day holiday weekend (as this is the one weekend Thais get off for vacation each year) - a good indication of this is when the ATM lines all day Thursday were halfway around the block in our neighborhood and the Northern bus terminal in Bangkok, where we caught our bus to the northern city of Nong Khai, was packed inside and out with the most Thai people I've seen in one place at one time (It took me nearly half an hour to go to the bathroom, trudging through crowds of people packed like sardines waiting for their respective buses to various northern cities.), the buses are also going to packed. Oh, don't worry about any safety issues or seating capacity issues on a bus...just put plastic stools in the aisles so more people can join in for the ride! Yes, although I was extremely tired from a week of teaching and hungry but didn't want to eat any of my snacks for fear of having to tell the bus driver in my not so good Thai that he has to stop the bus for a farang with a bladder problem, I tried to sleep, but the AC was blasting so hard it was very cold (and here in Thailand, no one has hot or cold temps - it's either cold, cold, or colder), and this girl on a stool in the aisle next to me was trying to sleep on my armrest, sleep on my shoulder, practically sleep on my lap! And, when she wasn't nodding off or nudging my shoulder, she was having these coughing fits, which were oh so lovely when I'm trying to start my journey on a packed bus for a holiday vacation.

If it wasn't people falling asleep on my shoulder, every now and then the bright headlights of traffic and abrupt stops would wake me up. It was crazy to see so much bumper to bumper traffic from 3 to 5 o'clock in the morning!

After arriving in Nong Khai at Aw's aunts and uncle's house, they immediately wanted to take u "traveling"...At first, I thought, great, just what I wanted to do after a sleepless 16 hour bus ride, with an empty stomach..jump in a car again to go "traveling"! Does "traveling" include eating lunch? was all I was wondering. But, after a drive around the Mekong River, admiring Laos just on the other side, and a visit to the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge, we drove across the bridge and crossed the border to go to the duty free store and buy snacks. So, although we didn't have time for a day trip to Vientien, Laos this weekend, I guess you could technically say I stepped foot into Laos.

In the late afternoon, we did have lunch at a Vietnamese shop. Vietnamese noodles are very popular here, and products from Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam are very cheap here in the markets. So, of course, next, we went to a very popular market in the Thabo municipality of Nong Khai where they live. Aw and I bought Thai silk so we can have work suits made along with other souvenirs and gifts for family and friends. That night, we barbequed (the story at the beginning of my entry), and Aw's cousins had many of their high school friends over, singing karaoke and drinking beer and staying up all night. I made up for lost time by eating until my heart's content, and slept to music blaring, only to wake up at 8 am the next morning with music still blaring as Aw's cousins were still partying it up!

Aw took Ray, her boyfriend, and me on her motorcycle to the market area and to a bridge overlooking the river. Later that afternoon, her aunt and uncle took us to viit the Wat Hin Mak Peng and the Vientien Wall. We all sat in the back of their pickup truck, freezing (this is the first time I've felt like it's Seattle weather - I actually layered in four shirts - which is unheard of in Thailand, but up north, it's a lot cooler at this time of year!), but I guess it was worth it because I got to watch the sunset and got an amazing picture!

The next day, we visited her mom and her stepdad, who live in a traditional Thai one room house on a farm where they grow vegetables and tend to a fish pond to sell at the markets. They used to live with Aw's aunt and uncle at one point, but moved here once they realized people were stealing their vegetables and destroying their crops. So, I took pictures of them so Aw can have pictures of her mom and dad, and her dad cut down some coconuts for us and we enjoyed some coconut juice before we left. We bought our bus tickets earlier that morning, and although the 400 baht VIP buses were sold out, scored on some cheaper tickets for a bus that opened up at 280 baht. That night, when her aunt, uncle, and cousins took us to the bus station (basically, the side of the road where we bought our ticket at some random shop), we saw many nice VIP buses with the typical airbrush murals painted on them in bright colors, double decker seats, and lots of room to spread out. Then, along came the 280 baht bus...and it was definitely the cheaper bus, busted up in more than a few places, with a door that just wouldn't close shut right. When you walked in, there were newspaper scraps all over the floor, and that musty smell of an old theater that hasn't ever been cleaned. I went to sit down in my seat, and there's a handle on the side where you can recline your seat for the comfy sleeping ride, but oh no, when I sat down in my particular seat, my chair went straight back into reclining position! Aw and I were cracking up, and that's when I looked towards the front of the bus, and realized we were really in the cheaper bus. Just at that moment, one of the workers made an announcement and everyone began laughing as he cracked a joke about the TV. Most buses have a television and radio up front for entertainment during long rides, but ours had paper in empty holes in the wall where apparently someone had either stolen the TV and radios, or they were just removed for some reason. I was able to spread out on two seats (as apparently, the cheaper bus to Bangkok wasn't a full ride) and enjoy the very bumpy ride. I almost thought we might not make it there in time, as the driver liked to take smoke breaks and stopped after one hour of driving, and nearly every hour after that. The funniest thing was when he first stopped, and opened the door, everyone was not sure if it was a bathroom break or not, as we had just gotten on the road, and along come a pack of wild dogs. One dog sniffs around the front door of the bus, takes the floor pad, and decides to play and rustle around with it down the block in their search for food.

Amiss all the bus excitement, we made it back to Nakhon Pathom by 10:30 am on Monday, January 3rd. It was a nice relaxing weekend getting to know Aw's family and visit a town I'd never been to before, with lots of great food to enjoy. We watched a lot of Thai movies and the tsunami relief efforts coverage on TV. Now it's time to get back to the reality of teaching again.