Day 50: Wednesday 12th August
It’s Thai Mother’s day! I mentioned yesterday how we
celebrated a day early at school in traditional Thai fashion, along with a fun
music competition. Today, all government run facilities are closed because it
is a national holiday. This meant Kanang and I could have a lazy morning,
before heading off for a leisurely Mother’s day lunch.
We went to a Vietnamese place that Kanang has told me about
and kept saying we would visit for ages now. I am a huge fan of Vietnamese
coffee, (although I’ve only tried it in Tampopo) made with condensed milk and filtered
coffee, so I was hopeful that they would sell it! My heart broke a little when they told me they didn't have any, so I had to settle for a huge, delicious fresh coconut- it’s not so
bad!
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| Mmmmmm-Hmmmmm |
The décor of the place was really cool, with old and interesting
things dotted about everywhere, including old telephones, motorbikes, chairs,
oil lamps hanging from the ceiling, and lots of random framed pictures. I
prefer visiting places like this, with interesting things to look at rather
than the usual uniform decoration. However, there were cobwebs intwined with the aforementioned decorations which wasn't so edgy, but rather dirty.
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| Spot the car... #random |
The food was really tasty and healthy at the same time,
which is always a bonus! We ate some sushi style rolls, with noodles, shrimp,
vegetables and tonnes of mint in (which I removed because me and mint will just never work our problems out), with a tasty dip. Also, we had all the ingredients to make our own
little rolls, made with rice noodle wraps, vegetables, satay dip and shrimp
balls. I was also happy that som tam graced our plates, even if it did have
squid and octopus tentacles in it that reminded me of my food challenge in Chiang Khan!
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| Som tam gets pride of place, as always |
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| Satay is life <3 |
After lunch, Kanang took me to Central plaza, the
main shopping centre in Khon Kaen, so I could meet ETAs Jess and Gwen. I was so
happy to see them, and its only been a few days since I was last with them!
Having that little bit of what you know, really helps you stay sane when you're so far from home in a different place. We shopped, bought jewellery, big doughy pretzels and
cosmetics that we shouldn’t have blown our budgets on… But who cares!? The
hours flew by and it was soon time for them to catch the last van back to
Chumpae. I waited in the pouring rain for a taxi for about 15 minutes. Usually
there are taxis in excess of people, so I was quite surprised about the wait- but it was Mother's day after all. As usual, I
phoned Kanang and put her on the phone to the taxi man to explain where we
live, as I still don’t know how to say where it is!
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| New silver ring |
Im pretty sure the taxi turned into a boat at one point as
we drove through floods that covered the whole wheel arches of the other cars!
If this was England, everyone would just stop; the roads would be closed and
nobody would leave the house. In Thailand, they all seem to hop onto their
bikes and into their cars and drive through at normal speed! The rain also
meant that the power kept cutting out at home that evening, so I had dodgy WiFi to contend
with. Oh the joys of monsoon season!
Happy Mother's day to all the Thai mamas!
Peace,
Olive
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