Morning comes quickly. I look out the window, still cloudy and cool. I get down to the breakfast restaurant at 9:10 to find that the buffet closed at 9:00. But, the hotel provides me with a regular menu style breakfast--eggs, toast, coffee, fruit, juice. Ahh, that's better!
I then go up to the room where I work on the journal. I am trying very hard to stay current with my entries, and as I write this sentence I am.
I then go for a walk. At first I plan to only walk to the nearby Robinson's Shopping Mall. It is a short walk--half block west on Phoshi Road, then 2 blocks north onTikattanon Road. It has a Robinson's department store (I had also seen these in Manila), a supermarket, a movie theatre, and lots of smaller shops and restaurants, all spread out over 4 floors. After wandering for a while I get a bag of popcorn, 10B, and eat is as I continue to wander. Later I get a small iced coffee from the KFC and then I leave the mall and start to walk west. Per my map there is a large park on the west side of the town center, and I should be able to walk there. So I walk west on Prachak Road until it ends at a parklike area which has a city shrine and s chinese shrine. I walk north a half block to the next road that goes west--Athipbodi Road--and continue west another block to Nong Prajak Park and Lake.
The Nong Prajak Park and Lake is perhaps 500 meters by 1000 meters, and as the name implies it has a large pond that meanders thru the park. It was a cool and cloudy day, but there were several couples and families with young children. There are 3 pedestrian bridges the go over the pond. One is a curved concrete bridge, and the others are suspension bridges. I enter the park on the curved concrete bridge. A young boy and his mother are dropping pieces of what looks like bread flakes into the water. They are feeding the fish, and there are some really big ones! I see that near the bridge some older ladies are selling large plastic bags of the fish food, so apparently many people feed the fish, and that explains why they are big and fat (and happy!). I walk thru most of the park, crossing both of the suspension bridges. They actually sway and bounce slightly as you walk across them! I then walk back out to the street on the east side of the park. I then walk south to Phosi Road, and walk east back to the hotel. The entire walk takes about 2 hours, and takes me thru several different shopping areas. There were areas of mostly hardware and home improvement products, other areas of mostly furniture stores, others of mostly electrical goods. There is a supermarket. And, there are many many many small restaurants and street food carts.
I get back to the hotel about 3:30 and ask at the front desk if K is in the hotel. She is not, so I go to the room and update this journal. Later I go down to the buffet for an early dinner, and then I walk to the local night market, about 4 blocks away. The market covers about 2 square blocks, and has the usual assortment of items--CDs, jewelry, clothing, etc. Most of it is for local people. There are very few westerners. On my way to the marklet I am walking along when suddenly I stop in my tracks. There is a very large creature directly in front of me. It is an elephant! This is the first street elephant that I have been in Thailand. A man is selling sugar cane to feed the elephant, 15B. I pass on the feeding, but I do take a photo! When I finish touring the market I get two snacks. The first is an actual pancake on a stick with a design baked in to one side of the pancake (haven't I seen this in the states?). The second is roti, the same "pancake" that I first had in Krabi. A great dessert!
I get back to the hotel and stop in at one of the restaurants. I can hear a woman singing Thai songs. I order some hot tea, but as soon as my tea comes the lady stops singing and is replaced by a man. It's just not the same! I then wander to the other bars at the hotel, but it is pretty quiet. At one I have a cognac and talk with the waitresses (or at least try to talk). Well, I guess that's all for the day, and so I go back to the room, watch some TV, and go to bed. I want to get up earlier tomorrow, have a nice breakfast, and then see about going up to Nong Khai.
I do get up earlier and have a very nice breakfast. The buffet here is much better than the one in BK. They even have a omelet station! As I am finishing my meal, T finds me. T is a driver, and he and I talk about where I want to go. We agree that he will take me north, to Nong Khai and Sri Chiang Mai. I am now in the area where a former friend of mine, MC, is from. MC was a nurse in the USA a few years ago, and she came back to Thailand about 2 1/2 years ago. It would be really neat if I could find her and say hello, but I don't have much info, just my own spelling of her family name.
Anyway, I check out of the hotel and by 9:30 T and I are on our way. T drives an old 1978 Datsun, in which he has placed a 6 cylinder engine. The car is old, but it is very reliable, and reasonably comfortable. We head north on the main highway, Route X. T tells me that the population of Udon Thani is about 300,000, with over a million in the province. The main road out of town is a 4 lane divided roadway with a median, and lots of businesses along the road. It reminds me of the old US highways. Gradually the city recedes and we are in farming country, with lots of rice fields, and also lots of tomatoes, pineapple, pumpkin (squash), and tobacco. Occasionally we pass water buffalo grazing alongside the road. They are very big!
When we are about half-way to Nong Khai we turn left off of the main road onto a two lane highway that leads to Sri Chiang Mai. I think that this might be the town where my friend MC is from. When we get into town T takes us to the local government office where they look in the computer for the last/family name that I have. Unfortunately they do not find anything. They suggest that we drive up the road about another 10km and ask some other people. So we do, but for naught. I had prepared a flyer with MC's basic info (that I knew), and also couple photos. Everyone is very kind and tries very hard to help. We finally decide that I probably do not have the last name correct. I have probably misspelled my misinterpretation of the sound of MC's last name, and to now try to translate it back into Thai probably gets us even further from the true name.
While driving around we stop for lunch in Sri Chiang Mai, which is alonside the Mekong River. Ventiane, the capital city of Laos, is directly across the river. It is definitely a low-rise city--most of the buildings are hidden by the trees. We have lunch at a small café that is across the street from the riverside walkway. T orders our food--sticky rice, spicy beef, stir-fried veggies, fish soup. A very good meal. I really liked the fish soup (fish from the Mekong river), and the spicy beef was spicy enough to be interesting and different, but not too spicy to be enjoyable!
We then drive on in to Nong Khai, which is also along side the Mekong River, but about 30km east of Sri Chiang Mai. T takes me to my hotel, the Nong Khai Grand (800B incl. breakfast; arranged for by K at Udon Thani hotel), and then drops me off near the waterfront. I pay him for his time and trouble, and thank him for his help, and set off.
Nong Khai is long and thin, stretched-out along the river which here runs east and west. Along the river front is a market area, and also many small hotels and guesthouses and restaurants. I walk the entire waterfront area from the middle to the east end, then back to the west end, and then back to the middle. About half-way thru my walk I stop at an internet café. The connection is very slow. Later, after I have finished my tour, I walk back to a small restaurant that I had seen earlier. It is named Khun Siam, and it is at the west end of the waterfront district.
While there I had dinner (noodles and veggies), and some coffee. Later I had some Thai whiskey with water. It was OK! I met the owner, P, and her staff of 3. Most of the time I was the only customer. I asked P if it was always so quiet, and she said no, but also not really very busy either. She opened the place 4 months ago, after buying the land and having the structure built. It is a 3 story building. The restaurant is on the ground floor, and then there are two upper levels that are used for living and sleeping. The construction cost was about $25,000 US. It would have cost at least 4 times as much back home, probably more.
As the evening continues I help P get an email address at Yahoo.com, and later she closes the shop early and takes all of us to a local night club which has a live band. So we listen to the band and dance a little, and they take me back to the hotel about midnight. We had a good time, and I hope I see them again sometime!
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