Songkran part 2 - Khon Kaen

On the Train Journey back from Bangkok we did the same as going there and set up our beds and headed to the drinks car only to have our hearts sink, as standing at the top of the car was none other than our buddy Nurse Ratchett (read previous blog :). She locked eyes with us and came straight down to take our orders. Once we got a few beers at the high price of 120 baht ( €3) per large Chang or Leo we played a few rounds of cards before Nurse Ratchett appeared again demanding all people in our party not drinking had to leave the car and that we had brought our own booze onto the train the last time.
She never once smiled the whole time but I did catch her joking with the other staff on the train. I tried to make the effort to win her over and after chatting a bit and giving a small tip for the staff, she was smiling and was pretty cool about it. I can only imagine how many times she does that trip from Non Khai to Bangkok every week, having to deal with drunken travelers every time.


We arrived back very early morning and got a quick nap in before re-grouping and heading to a friends restaurant called “Mickeys Pizza” in the city. They have some of the best pizza in town and a lot of German beers at decent prices, also some of the best baguettes around. 
The owner had his kids playing out front and every business on the street had huge coolers of water filled with ice bags ready to go. The owners dogs had just had puppies and we met the last one, as all the others had been given away.
I believe he said 14 hours labour and about 17 puppies... poor mother. 

However one of our friends fell in love with the dog and asked if he still wanted to sell him and ended up bringing home a new animal member to the Supans bar's, already growing animal clientele. So now we have Boner the cat, Guinness the dog and the newest member “Dulli” (A half bulldog half boxer, soon to be a medium sized horse going by the size of his parents).

Around mid-day the street started to get busy and kids and adults were running around the streets laughing and joking and throwing copious amounts of water and Ice water at each other. When two pickups or jeeps would pass each other of get stuck beside each other because of traffic, there would be an all out war as they had 10 gallon drums of Ice water sitting in the back as did most of the jeeps that went past.

In Bangkok and some of the big cities you are also likely to see elephants walking through the towns joining in the fun and squirting tourists with trunks full of water which is not something you would ever believe you would see but its Thailand. People come from around the world to see and be part of this event and I highly recommend you do it if you have the chance. However the madness of Bangkok can be a bit much, so maybe do one day there and then head to Chiang Mai or a smaller city to enjoy it the ways the Thais do, rather than being surrounded by mostly tourists, who can tend to get a bit too drunk from standing around in the sun all day drinking very cheap drinks.

Around 2pm it started to get quite dark above us and once the wind came we knew a storm was upon us. The heavy rainfall tends to come and go and does a great job of cooling the place down. But when it rains it really rains. We had maybe 2 hours of rain and it was enough to flood the street but did not stop the festivities as it was still 40 degrees. The water level came up about a foot in that time and I made a few Thai's shout out "ting tong falang" (crazy foreigner) when I decided to go for a swim in the street but it was to their amusement. We prayed this wasn't the start of wet season but after some searching we found we still have some time, the rainy season is roughly June to September and gets a bad reputation, there are some bonuses: temperatures tend to be cooler, tourists are fewer and the landscape is lush and green. Depending on the region and month, the rainfall might be only an hour long downpours in the afternoon but is all good after that.

Every time a cop / police officer would drive by kids and adults,, people really went crazy, trying to hit them. And they had their real guns in plastic bags on their belts so I wasn't too inclined to do the same.
In saying that 2 days earlier in Bangkok I was pretty, lets say Merry and walking down Rhambuttri Road beside Kao San I spotted a bunch of cops sitting at a table on the street having a few beers and watching the street. One of the older cops asked to borrow my gun while asking where I was from. He then proceeded to turn and spray one of the younger cops in the face and they all burst out laughing.
So after chatting I asked him for a pic and jumped on his lap... hmmm wouldn't have done that sober or what I did next. So while they were taking the pic I slowly brought the water gun over my shoulder until it was upside down and pointed directly at the younger cop behind me and as the pics were being taken I pulled the trigger to the roars of laughter from the other cops. I jumped up and luckily the cop took it as a joke and we shook hands with them before disappearing into the night to be soaked as we went.

Speaking of water they have opened an Olympic sized swimming pool inside Khon Kaen university next to the football stadium and field and running track. The running track is free and the pool is 15 baht (€0.40) for the whole day, so we have started going swimming as many nights a week as we can and running the other nights with 2 nights of Insanity training. Insanity is pure evil but it reminded me of a lesser form of the TRX which we use to do in Ireland and we highly recommend it. It feels good to be back working out.We can't do it too early because of the heat during the day as it is creeping up to the 40's

I (Stephen) have also just got all my paper work back and also had to get a medical done as I've been offered a full time role working with Kristine in the kindergarten. Once I go to Laos and get my Non immigrant B visa in 2 weeks, I can get a work permit and be legal in Thailand putting my self into the 20% of legal teachers as apposed to the 80% of illegal, but they could never kick them all out as Thailand is very behind in the education department and have to catch up with others countries like Laos, Cambodia, Burma and many others for the joining of the countries through the ASEAN community which is akin to the EU in Europe. They have selected English as the base language, so there is a big push to get kids from a young age speaking fluently.. no pressure!

So next week we will be heading back to Laos to get a new visa and have decided that this time we are heading to Savannakhet rather than Vientiane, as we have heard good things. I will post a detailed travel blog for this, as we have been told its 100 times easier to get the visa and in much less time. We have written previously about the nightmare that is the Thai Embassy in Vientiane, so we are hoping for a easier experience this time around.

Oh and it was 42 degrees yesterday and I wore a suit to work and not a bead of sweat was lost. Not sure if us acclimatising is good or bad as we're going back to Ireland in August for a holiday and I'll will look like an absolute lunatic wearing 6 layers of clothing incl. hoodies and jackets, while everyone else is burning to death in 20 degrees :)