On Monday morning we hopped in the car and drove three hours (maybe two, I wasn’t paying attention) to Nong Khai, the town that borders Laos on the Mekong and is home to the closest immigration office. For the princely sum of 2000 baht (50$) I was given another thirty days in the Kingdom. My next trip to Nong Khai will see me crossing the border into Laos to connive my way into some sort of more permanent visa.
I love driving in Thailand. The roads are generally well-maintained and the scenery is often, surely not always, spectacular. I keep forgetting to bring my camera on these trips, but I won’t next time. The dry grasslands are marked by tremendous trees – almost like something you would see on a National Geographic, “Let’s discover the Serengeti” type show. My girlfriend finds it all rather banal, adding to my sense of fun and her sense of boredom. There is still a lot in Thailand that I want to see, even in this region and it is all fairly accessible by car. No tolls I might add. After living in the world’s worst country for domestic travel, it’s nice to be in a place where road travel is feasible time wise, affordable, and rather pleasant along the way. Unfortunately, Japan couldn’t tick yes next to even one of those boxes. I’m hoping to take a trip to Sukhotai this summer. It is one of the country’s former capitals, replete with old stone stuff that is falling down, but still looks pretty cool. I believe that is the dictionary definition for ruins.
Yesterday was out to the village to pick up some mail and other errands. As it is the season in which there is no work and much laying-about, the villagers are as sleepy as ever. The place almost looked deserted when we first drove in. I imagine that beyond the poverty, one of the real hardships of life in Nong Sao must be the tedium. That may lend itself, in part to some of the alcoholism. I know I would sure want a drink if I lived there with nothing to do for a good several months in the year. We did have the chance to do something nice, however. We took two of Pocky’s cousins, five and four years-old to town to buy some school clothes. The younger boy didn’t have the ‘uniform’ (it was only a pair of blue shorts and light blue button-down shirt) that was required to go to Kindergarten, so we bought him the uniform, shoes and back pack. His sister had hand-me-down clothes for school, but needed some shoes, so we bought her a pair. It looks as if Muu, meaning ‘pig’, will now be able to go to school and his sister will have some nice school shoes.
When I was young my dad moved into a fully furnished rental house. The owners had a strange sense of humor and the place was adorned with funny posters, at least we thought so. In the basement was one of a man decked out in full English riding suit with his horse truncheon and all, foot up on the bumper of a Roll’s Royce. The caption read Poverty Sucks! I think the poster just about sums it up, albeit not in the way perhaps intended.