So, after our fast decision to leave Vientiane, we jumped on board a cramped local bus and made a fast dash to the border. To leave Laos was a lot easier than it was to enter, it only took us 30 mins in total (compared with the 3 hours to enter) and we found ourselves at the border town of Nong Khai. The town was great to say it simply, quiet, slow motion and foreigner free . After getting our drunk tuk tuk driver to drop us off at a friendly little guest house, Rob and I started to explore. We were in desperate need to get our camera sorted and all the shops we entered were only interested in selling us a new one. After an afternoon of getting ourselves nowhere we gave up and decided to try our luck further down south in bbk for a camera repairer!
The next morning we woke up early to get a bus down south to a place called Nakhon Ratschasima (or affectionately known to the locals as Kho Rat). This was my second time to Khorat. I had visited it before with my old friend, and former rockclimbing buddy, Nai, while staying with his family in nearby Pimai many years before. This time Robbie and I spent 3 days re-exploring the former capital of Thailand and re-familiarising ourselves with the language and culture. A couple of days of good Thailand shopping later, and we were ready to head to Pimai, the small sleepy village town Nai and his family still lived in. We spent a few days here with Nai's family, his wife Gai and new daughter Mai. Rob was impressed by it quaintness and how close all the villagers are to each other, there is always a neighbour around to help with the laundry, or to baby-sit, or trade street gossip (one of the most important things in Asian culture). It was a great place to make you realise how much the western world has evolved (or de-evolved) since even when we were young.
Kids run to school together, boys play in gangs and the nastiest weapons they wield are a sling shot or bike tyre and a stick. Girls plait there mums hair and help with all the chores all the while singing away merrily. The teenagers do as they are told and run to the shops to fetch bits and pieces for the elders. And the grandparents are the most respected members of the community. What they say goes, no questions asked! Nobody is afraid to walk at night, and in the afternoon all the fathers gather around a soccerfield and help to teach soccer to the kids.(with beer or whiskey in hand of course)
It was great to think back to when we were younger and our lives weren't ruled by our fears.
Nowadays. You would cross the road if you saw a group of young kids milling around a corner because one of them might have a knife. Girls wouldn't be caught dead listening to what there mum has to say. You wouldn't trust a teenager to go to the shops on an errand for you because he could try to buy cigarettes with your money and say he lost it. And fathers gathering around a soccerfield, well one of them could be a paedophile, and you cant drink beer in public, and the elderly are just pushed into the corner and treated like they are all just senile....
If you disagree to anything I have said, well that's your opinion and I stick by mine.
So after a few short days we said goodbye to Nai, Gai and Mai, and off to the ever faithful Bangkok we went!!
We didn't really have a plan for Bangkok except to get our camera sorted, (which miraculously started to work like it was new again in Pimai??), to take our friend Miwa out for her birthday, and for me to go to a hospital. I had gotten a small infection in my left ring finger in Vang Vieng that just kept getting bigger and bigger. So after 3 weeks it was a very nasty, very large infection. I took myself off to the same 5 star hospital in Bangkok Rob had used and Miwa had resided in for a week. The cost for minor surgery in a place that has flat screen tv's on the back of the toilet doors was around $150 (we couldn't believe it either).And by doctors orders I spent the next week relaxing in a cool environment playing on the net and washing all our very smelly travellers clothes. At the end of this our 15 day visa was almost expired (honestly how is a traveller expected to see anything in only 15 days??). So we jumped onto yet another long bus trip back up to Nong Khai and realised all to late that we still hadn't seen this town for all its worth... but what can you do when your visa is expiring in 8 hours?
Next stop.... Vientiane Laos!
The next morning we woke up early to get a bus down south to a place called Nakhon Ratschasima (or affectionately known to the locals as Kho Rat). This was my second time to Khorat. I had visited it before with my old friend, and former rockclimbing buddy, Nai, while staying with his family in nearby Pimai many years before. This time Robbie and I spent 3 days re-exploring the former capital of Thailand and re-familiarising ourselves with the language and culture. A couple of days of good Thailand shopping later, and we were ready to head to Pimai, the small sleepy village town Nai and his family still lived in. We spent a few days here with Nai's family, his wife Gai and new daughter Mai. Rob was impressed by it quaintness and how close all the villagers are to each other, there is always a neighbour around to help with the laundry, or to baby-sit, or trade street gossip (one of the most important things in Asian culture). It was a great place to make you realise how much the western world has evolved (or de-evolved) since even when we were young.
Kids run to school together, boys play in gangs and the nastiest weapons they wield are a sling shot or bike tyre and a stick. Girls plait there mums hair and help with all the chores all the while singing away merrily. The teenagers do as they are told and run to the shops to fetch bits and pieces for the elders. And the grandparents are the most respected members of the community. What they say goes, no questions asked! Nobody is afraid to walk at night, and in the afternoon all the fathers gather around a soccerfield and help to teach soccer to the kids.(with beer or whiskey in hand of course)
It was great to think back to when we were younger and our lives weren't ruled by our fears.
Nowadays. You would cross the road if you saw a group of young kids milling around a corner because one of them might have a knife. Girls wouldn't be caught dead listening to what there mum has to say. You wouldn't trust a teenager to go to the shops on an errand for you because he could try to buy cigarettes with your money and say he lost it. And fathers gathering around a soccerfield, well one of them could be a paedophile, and you cant drink beer in public, and the elderly are just pushed into the corner and treated like they are all just senile....
If you disagree to anything I have said, well that's your opinion and I stick by mine.
So after a few short days we said goodbye to Nai, Gai and Mai, and off to the ever faithful Bangkok we went!!
We didn't really have a plan for Bangkok except to get our camera sorted, (which miraculously started to work like it was new again in Pimai??), to take our friend Miwa out for her birthday, and for me to go to a hospital. I had gotten a small infection in my left ring finger in Vang Vieng that just kept getting bigger and bigger. So after 3 weeks it was a very nasty, very large infection. I took myself off to the same 5 star hospital in Bangkok Rob had used and Miwa had resided in for a week. The cost for minor surgery in a place that has flat screen tv's on the back of the toilet doors was around $150 (we couldn't believe it either).And by doctors orders I spent the next week relaxing in a cool environment playing on the net and washing all our very smelly travellers clothes. At the end of this our 15 day visa was almost expired (honestly how is a traveller expected to see anything in only 15 days??). So we jumped onto yet another long bus trip back up to Nong Khai and realised all to late that we still hadn't seen this town for all its worth... but what can you do when your visa is expiring in 8 hours?
Next stop.... Vientiane Laos!
