Last full day in Nong Khai

Wednesday - 7 May 08

Hi everyone! This is our last full day in Nong Khai so it has been a little busier than our last couple of days. Up early as usual and, what is it with holidays we never seem to be able to sleep in. We dropped off some washing at the house next door on our way to breakfast, its funny because they weigh your washing and charge you per kilo. It costs 15 Baht per kilo so it cost us 60 Baht ($2 Aud) and we pick it up tomorrow morning before we check out of our hotel.

Rick and I walked down to the bus station to inquire about buses to Udon Thani. We actually found someone who spoke reasonable english and could answer our inquiry. Udon Thani is one hour south of here and the buses run every half an hour and they are air conditioned coaches (thank god!) and it costs 40 Baht ($1.30 Aus) to get there. We have decided now to travel where ever we are going by bus only, no more trains.

We caught a Tuk Tuk to one of the local attractions 6km out of town. It was an unusual park called 'Sala Kaew Ku' with massive sculptures (some over 20ft tall) and was built by a guy from Laos back in 1978 after he got kicked out of Laos. We caught a Tuk Tuk there and back and the driver waited at the park for an hour while we looked around and took photos. When we finished we had to wake him up to get him to bring us back. The rest of the arvo we spent walking around the city for the last time and back through the markets along the Mekong River. I managed to buy a couple of tops that are loose and cooler as it is still quite humid. The internet server has been down all day and Rick is having withdrawals, the hotel reception said the computer tech was coming to fix it at 5pm but it didn't come back on line till late tonight.

Tomorrow we catch the bus down to Udon Thani around lunch time, not sure what is there as far as to look at but will see, we will probably only stay a day or two and then head back to Bangers to catch the bus to Jomtien Beach, Pattaya.

To everyone who has been asking about the cyclone, we are the other side of Northern Thailand in the Isaan region in North Eastern Thailand close to the Laos border. Burma/Myanmar is on the Northern Thailand border at Chiang Rai/Chiang Mai so we are safe here. We will be doing our visa run into Myanmar when we get to Chiang Mai in a couple of weeks but it will be in the North of Myanmar that we will be crossing the border and it will only be a day trip.

We have now been in Thailand for 11 days and have been enjoying every bit of it up to date, the people are nice, transport is good and the food (of course) is great. We are getting used to only one cup of coffee per day and have cut down our smoking by more than half. We are still taking our Malaria tablets and since our foot massage back in Kanchanaburi I haven't had any problems or anymore swelling of my ankles, so I will be having a few more foot massages on our travels.

Until tomorrow our journey continues.