At the end of September Barr, Cortes and I made a second trip up to Issan in Northern Thailand for our friend Neil's birthday and to check out another town in the mountains. Although this sounded like a great idea initially, I had forgotten about the 7 hour overnight bus rides and showing up to school Monday morning in time for class on about 2 hours of sleep. Thank god for dramamine and caffeine.
We left Amata Friday night after an awesome farewell dinner with the Japanese and Chinese teachers at Satit Casset. They brought okinomiyaki, mochi, Japanese omelets, potato cakes, chicken salad, and all kinds of amazing food. As Americans we represented with chicken fried rice, eggplant salsa, and beer. The other teachers bought an ice cream cake since it was Barr and Rochelle's last dinner. So cute! We all had a really good time then headed out at about 10:30 to try and make our way up to Bangkok and on to Khon Kaen. We ended up cabbing it to Mo Chit bus station and then taking a VIP bus to Khon Kaen. A little expensive but considering we saved on a room by taking the overnight bus it was well worth it. Plus between the super comfy seats and dramamine I got a good nights sleep.
We arrived in Khon Kaen at 6am, tried for Hotel Roma but they were booked, so we ended up around the corner at Khon Kaen Inn, which was nicer than the places we usually stay and we got a few hours of sleep in before starting our day!
As I mentioned, it was Neil's birthday, so the Kalasin kids (Neil, Josh, Reuven, Charlotte) came and we all went to Central for some bowling and karaoke!! After a riveting afternoon we headed out for a group dinner then all piled into a song taew (15 of us at this point... there were definitely Thai heads turning, some in wonder, others in confusion, and a few in disgust, as 15 white people pulled up in a remodeled pick-up truck to the night club) ahh, the wonders of Thai public transportation methods. We danced and drank at Johnnie Walker RAD club until late in the night, which was a fairly good time, although very crowded. Later on for a midnight snack we spotted what we thought was grilled pork on a stick, I asked the man selling in Thai if it was what I thought (moo yung ka?) and he said yes. Only after the first bite did I realize something was off. When I examined the contents of my styrofoam bowl more closely I could see that in fact it was night grilled pork meat, but instead grilled pork intestines. Mmm, no thank you. I have eaten a lot of weird things in Thailand but this honestly did not taste good at all and the thought was freaking me out. Thank goodness there was a 7-11 right around the corner. I threw away my pig intestines and opted for a 7-sandy (7-11 ham and cheese sandwich) then took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Relatively successful night.
The next day we wandered through the markets in Khon Kaen and headed down to the lake in the center of the city. It was a really nice day and so we rented some ducky paddle boats and spent the afternoon on the water. Beautiful!! I overestimated my paddling abilities and was totally exhausted by the time I got back to the dock an hour and a half later. Phewww. It was sooo hot but thankfully the fruit man showed up so I got some much needed nutrients from the pineapple, papaya, and guava he was selling. Amazing.
After that we said bye to Reuven and Neil and waited around at the Pizza Bake for our bus which was scheduled to leave at 9. Unfortunately, even though this bus was only 50 baht cheaper than the one we took up here, and was also called VIP, it was not nearly as comfortable so I did not sleep well at all, despite the dramamine. I arrived in Chonburi in Chulum Thai at 5am, headed back to the apartment via motorbike, passed out for an hour or so, then got up and headed to school!
Ohhh Issan weekends <3.
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