And it's back in Thailand for us!! Yeah!! 

We've decided to cross Thailand, in order to reach Cambodia.  Gonna be a tough mission?  Nah!!!

Anyway, what a great feeling to back here!! Don't even know how much we were looking forward to being back here, with all the yummy food, which also happens to be much cheaper. 

And let's not forget that hitching works beautifully here!  So, we should reach our destination in no time!!!

Apres Ventiane, on en avait un peu mare du Laos, on decida donc de traverser de nouveau la Thailande pour aller au Cambodge.

Les routes etant meilleures, la nourriture aussi et moins chere en plus, on allait gagner du temps et de l argent, sachant aussi que le stop marchait tres bien en Thailande.

Allez, let's go!!

De avond van de 19e zijn we nog uit geweest met 2 studentes die we hebben ontmoet. We zijn naar een disco geweest op de 4de verdieping van een hotel. (je zal er maar een kamer hebben). Redelijk prijzig.. maar het was wel een leuke avond. De volgende dag weer vroeg op gestaan en de bus naar Nong Khai genomen, een stadje recht tegenover Vientiane en vanuit deze stad vertrekken de treinen richting het zuiden.

Ons plan is om morgen ochtend de hechtingen in mijn arm er uit te halen en dan de trein te nemen naar Korat, een stad die op de route ligt naar cambodia. Als het goed is, is de grootse grensovergang nog wel open.

Aangekomen in Nong Khai hebben we een mooie guesthouse gevonden. Voor 350 bath (3.50 euro pp) hebben we een hotelkamer. En Nong Khai ziet er ook wel gezellig uit. Die avond hebben we nog een beetje gepooled en door het centrum geslentert. Er zijn veel oudere westerlingen met thaise vrouwen, maar niet echt veel backpackers.

When I saw this place in Lonely Plant Guide, Southeast Asia on a shoestring, I was a bit hesitant about using it. Only because I had recently found that their guides are not always most up to date and didn't want to be walking around an unfamiliar place looking for somewhere to sleep for the night, especially since we had been up all day and was tired and hungry. When arriving at the Sawasdee it was clearly signposted and the host was very welcoming. At only 180 baht per room, 2 to a room it was very affordable and my expectations were low. Especially when we had entered as I thought I was stepping into maybe an old museum or something like an antiques store! Little nick nacks everywhere littering cupboards, some strange, others amazing. We paid though and he took us into a dining area in the hotel under a sky light, here was a bar, where we could help self to drinks, hot and cold and place orders for food with the house maid. The drinks system was done on an honesty system where you marked on your own card the drinks you had had, so upon checkout you could pay for these. He then showed us the hot water shower facility, 10 baht for 10 mins, on the ground floor, away from the main shared bathrooms. Then up to our rooms. Which were spacious and clean. Not the best decor, with lino flooring, but basic and comfortable. Lights, fans, cupboards and mirror. The bathrooms/shower rooms were clean and tidy, and even without hot water, the cold wasn't particularly cold, but refreshing. Just what I needed after my long day. Checking out was easy and they were good enough to look after our bags for the day whilst we was exploring waiting for the overnight train later that day to Bangkok. So was great for location and as a stopover between Laos and Thailand, when all you need is a comfy bed and a quiet night.

The next morning, staying at Sawasdee Guest House, I slept in a little late whilst 2 of our group went to the train station to get us some tickets for the overnight train back to Bangkok for that evening. Once they were back we checked out and left our bags in the hotel for the day whilst going out exploring the town. I had suggested a place called the Sala Kaewkoo described in Lonely Planet as ' a surreal spiritual and sculptural journey into the mind of a mystic shaman of Lao descent. This Park offers a potpourri of the Hindu and Buddhist pantheon of deities, and the immense statues offer some freaky photo opportunities'. This is a slight understatement. Considering the time it was built the imagination behind these sculptures was advanced for the religions themselves. Images of dogs chasing an elephant, some on scooters, motorbikes, carrying guns and smoking cigars, was something I did not totally expect! At the time of creation it was considered modern art and was unorthodox to what people expected when seeing Hindu/Buddhist sculptures and very interesting. All the statues resembled different things but were so unlike those I've ever seen. Different Buddhas and six headed snakes and monkeys. There was even one part that was like a dedication to life, and showed different stages. Statues of babies, then children playing, then teenagers dating, turning into a young couple, married then birthing their own children before growing old together, before being in a coffin. It was truly amazing and because I was taking so many photos my battery died on my camera! We was only there an hour and headed back soon after as it was beginning to rain.

We headed back towards the hotel but to the river, separating Laos and Thailand and went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch/dinner. I've never tasted anything like it and really hope food doesn't really taste the same as that in Vietnam. I thought it was horrible and the other four guys with me hardly ate any of theirs either!

We then picked up our bags and headed to the train station to catch our overnight train back to Bangkok. It was defiantly more fun doing this journey in a group rather than on my own as I had a week earlier. I read some of my book, played some poker with the guys and and had a drink in the buffet car, talking to some other travelers. Until I met a guy called Billy! He was originally from Nottingham but now lives in Bangkok. He came and sat with us and was very friendly and almost scary! When he started telling me how horny he was, I was starting to throw pleading looks to my friends opposite the table asking for help! Why is it men can't take a hint!!! When he left for the bathroom, I made a quick exit and scampered to my bed, closing the curtains and hiding. Next morning, when arriving, he got of the train before me, so I was saved!

Wow! I had the grandest sleep in days! :) The shuffling of feet along the aisle woke me up and as soon as I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the beerlady's face smiling at me. She handed me something, the check for the beers and food last night. Oops, I had completely forgotten that we haven't paid yet so I sorted it out. Haha! A few minutes past 9, the train stopped and all of us thought (including the Westerners) we're already in Nong Khai so we got all busy grabbing our bags but Wayne asked the guy outside and he was told that Nong Khai was still 15 minutes away? Oh no, I think it's 50 because we arrived Nong Khai station at 9:50. LOL!

As we got off, Wayne started looking for a place where he could sort his visa and since I won't need it, I didn't do a research on it (sorry duck!). Haha! Luckily, we met these two girls from Denmark (if my memory serves me right, the names are Anna and Audrey) who would also get their visas so we decided to join them from the tuk tuk ride (paid 20 baht each) to the travel agency. While waiting for them, the dizziness was kicking in again and I was feeling so damn uneasy. Wayne got me a bottle of water while I waited for him. System hydration didn't help, I still felt like fainting. So he asked if I was okay and I whispered something in his ear *secret* and it made me laugh a little because it sounded soo silly. But he better get used to me. haha! It was that time of the month. Bloody hell! In its realest sense! Hahaha! "Don't worry, we'll find a toilet." Oh I hope so...:( But yeah, we did find a toilet at the Thai border and I told Wayne to just wait for me while I changed my stained shorts. hahaha! Done. I was already queueing up and I read from the restrictions that playing cards are prohibited in Thailand and I just wished they wouldn't check my bag or I'd be kicked out with two decks in it. hahaha! Everything went smooth so we then took a bus to Lao border costing 15 BATH! Haha. Baht! :P

At the Lao border, I started feeling dizzy again because we haven't eaten anything yet and it's almost 11 now. So as Wayne lined up to out sort his visa, I was off wandering looking for some food. But I didn't find anything I'd like so I just got some chicharon (haha!) and coke. Only had a few bites then threw it out. I had no appetite at all! Wayne was already on the other side of the border when the girl from the travel agency came to me and instructed me to follow the guy in red (the driver of the minivan that would take us to Vientianne) with my boyfriend.  Oh don't worry, we always get that. It's the gazillionth time when people mistake us for being a couple, actually! Haha! When I got to the other side, Wayne had been given two tickets instead of one. hehe :P So I'm free of charge?! Cool! Haha! 2-hour ride to Vientianne wasn't bad on a comfy airconditioned van. :) We didn't have to eat dust on the bus! Yay! :P

In certain situations I really prefer night buses. You save money for the accomodation, save valuable time if the trip takes long and you get forward while you sleep. If you are able to fall asleep of course. This is something I’ve learned and got trained on lots of previous trips. Pavel makes sometimes fun of me that I’m able to fall asleep in every ocasion if I want to and that I could oversleep an earthquake ( probably he’s right, hehe). If there will be ever an armageddon and the end of world, wake me up when it’s over, hahaha.

Back to the trip, as I mentioned before in certain situations I really prefer night buses.

It was early morning when we were suddenly approaching the Mekong river and the border to Laos. The name of the border town where we stopped was Nong Khai. After a short break and  the Thai passport procedure at a wooden platform next to the river our bus drove us to the so called Thai-Lao Friendship bridge. On its other end the bus stopped again and all the passengers got out. This was supposed to be the busiest border point between the two countries and seeing all the people moving forward I couldn’t do anything else then agree. Most of the people here had to get first the Lao visa, they were standing either in the queue for the application or sitting around filling in their data. We had our visas already, but we had to wait for Christine. I used the opportunity to exchange some US dollars into Lao kip. The rate was 1 USD = 10.000 kip. And guess what, the 10.000 kip note was the one with the highest value. I exchanged 100 USD and became a millionaire from one moment into another. A millionaire with a huge bunch of banknotes. I looked more like a drug dealer, hahaha.

It took Christine about half an hour to get the visa and then she joined us into the queue for the passport control. Segej passed first, Pavel second and then me. Behind the Lao passport control there was another desk where they were charging another 20 baht for some ridiculous reason I don’t remember anymore. Probably because we were breathing their air or something. Sergej was already behind the desk and he was giving me secret signs to just pass by the other side while a tourist in front of me was paying. The Lao officer couldn’t see me this way. I hesitated a second, but then did what Sergej suggested. Not because 20 baht was much, just because I don’t like it when states are trying to rip off people.

From here a Lao bus took us the missing 22km to Vientiane, the Lao capital. I’ve been exchanging messages from my cellphone with my Lao friend Mit from early morning.

Mit offered to pick us up but we had already almost an hour delay. And there seemed to be another problem. My cellphone seemed not to get a signal in Laos. Damned...I needed to message Mit where we got off the bus as this place in Vientiane obviously wasn’t the usual arrival point. Finally I got a signal from a Thai provider and sent my friend quickly a message hoping it would arrive. About 20 minutes later I heard somebody saying my name behind my back. There he was, my friend Mit. We haven’t seen for 3 years since I left Tsukuba as my exchange semester in Japan was finished. We graeted each other and I introduced him the others.

We planned to take a bus directly to Vang Vieng in the afternoon. Mit had to finish something at work, but he promissed that he would join us a day later. But before taking the bus we had to do some arrangements. Already in Bangkok I recieved a message from Mit that on the road to Luang Prabang a bandit was assaulting buses and that the Lao police was trying to catch him. So far without any success unfortunatly. We took this seriously as Mit was really concerned about the risk we would run. OK, we couldn’t take the bus, but no way we would skip Luang Prabang. As far as I heard this city is the number one highlight of every trip to Laos. Mit suggested to take a flight with the Lao airlines, the tickets were supposed to cost only around 60 USD one way. Well, we had no other choice, did we? We had a girl with us and I prefered not to imagine what bandits could do to her. Mit leaded us to his minivan in which we put our luggage and then he pointed on a building about 100 meters ahead of us. “That’s the office of Lao Airlines” he said. Oh, how convenient. With Mit’s help it took us maybe half an hour and we had the flight tickets to Luang Prabang in our hands.      Then our first Lao lunch and it was time to get to the bus station. Because of Christine who had problems with motion sickness and seemed quite tired anyway we decided to take a better bus, even ifit resulted a couple of dollars more for the ride. Forget bus time tables, they might be good for some orientation, but that’s all. In Laos it’s still common that a bus doesn’t leave before it isn’t more or less full. So we had to wait until the guys collected enough foreigners (no Lao people were travelling with us) so we could finally leave…around 1 ½ hours later. Ahhh, whatever. In Laos you slow down automatically. 

Around 3 hours later we suddenly reached Vang Vieng, it was getting dark already. We chose already in the bus an accommodation in the Lonely Planet guidebook, we just had to find it. The only problem…we were 3 guys and 1 girl. I noticed that Christine has been talking in the bus with her neighbour, a blond girl, so I suggested her to ask her (her name was Sherry as we soon found out) if they could take a room together. She agreed and soon we were 5 walking around and searching for the particular hostel. Christine had no real orientation sense so she left everything on us. And she did well, couple of minutes later we were checking in. Really nice rooms, me, Pavel and  Sergej were supposed to pay together some 7 USD for the night. Welcome to Laos , haha. The rest of the evening was calm, we just went to have some dinner and afterwards for a walk.

Best place to say at nong khai, where the friendship bridge to laos lies. Englishman and his Thai wife, great huge riverfront patio, nice people, laid back, great food. Unbelievably relaxing, lovely, comfy place to stay for a day or 3 months! Connections to local do-good stuff if you want to hang and be part of things.

Crossing the border from Laos to Thailand was every bit as easy as doing it in the other direction. A beautifully air-conditioned bus took us across the Mekong, switching from the right hand side of the road to the left; border formalities were painless; suddenly I'd left the calm of Laos and was back in busy, noisy Thailand. Nong Khai was a mid-sized town with not much to it, but it was as different from Vientiane as Vientiane was from Pak Beng. I took a room in an atmospheric guest house, had dinner at a busy local restaurant, spent the evening chilling in the heat.

By the next morning, I'd changed my mind again. Vietnam was off the agenda but instead of returning to Laos, I decided to go back to Bangkok. From there I could take a bus to Trat and over the Cambodian border. Yeah! Even now, nearly three months into the trip, I wasn't used to having this sort of freedom. Give me a week (as I noted in my diary) and I could be anywhere. "Why not fly to Nepal? Why not get a train to Butterworth and see the orangutans on Sumatra? Why not strike out for Beijing and 'do' the trans-Siberian? I could." And I could. But I didn't. Not yet.

Bought a sleeper ticket to Bangkok for about ten quid, then; got slated on the TT for being so vulgar as to make a joke on the Lao branch; walked a fairly long way downriver to see a stupa that had slipped into the water in the nineteenth century and was still there. Had a shower at my guest house and felt good for about six seconds, before every pore in my body started pumping sweat again just like water shot out of a syringe. Tuk-tuk to the station, bolted some dinner, got on a train.

I'd never been on a sleeper train before. On either side of the aisle, pairs of wide wooden seats faced each other; an hour or so into the journey, though, attendants came down the train and slid these seats together to form a single bunk. The upper bunk swung down from the wall above, and there was my bed for the night. The guy guy streched a sheet over the mattress, took a pillow from his trolley, put a cover on it, left a blanket in a sealed wrapper, and moved on. Spent the evening reading up on Cambodia and was asleep by eleven o'clock.

Day 4 – October 27, 2007

Today I have discovered the infinite joys of Thai Massage.  It is something between chiropractic, yoga and therapeutic and is absolutely wonderful.  We started our day with an hour of it and it was love at first spinal crack. You are provided with a pair of very large pants with a string that you tie in the back and a large tunic like shirt.  They then proceed to work every joint and muscle in your body.  I felt like a million bucks by the end of it.  We walked around the market for a while, had lunch and decided it wouldn’t be so bad to feel like 3 million bucks.  We found another place called the Healthy Garden and promptly laid down for the best 2 hour massage of my life. 

That night, as we walked around enjoying the festival that is the end of Buddhist Lent, we saw people igniting paper, floating lanterns.  They have a small flammable ring that you light and then the square white paper bag above it inflates like a hot air balloon and when it’s full enough with hot air, it takes off into the sky quite rapidly.  They are beautiful to watch and we even tried one ourselves.  Fortunately we didn’t catch it on fire and it soared majestically into the sky.  A little while later we watched with unabashed interest as a group of monks lit several of them and sent them into the great beyond.  The most amazing thing was to see them lifting above the buildings all around us and lighting up the darkened sky like stars that had gotten a little too close…  That was day 4.

Day 7 – October 30, 2007

Moped Adventures:  Day 3…  This country becomes more beautiful to me by the day.  Just when I think I may never see a countryside more amazing again, we get on our mopeds and head in a different direction.  Today’s goal was to drive along the Mekong, visit several Wat’s (Buddhist temples) and to ultimately make our way to one of Thailand’s many national parks.  

As we wound our way along the river the rice patties melded into mountains that rose all around us covered in banana trees and thatched huts.  We cruised through town after town with cows chomping at grass on the side of the road and occasionally running across the road in front of us.  I found it interesting that we would see two or three houses per town that were obviously brand new and very Western looking – usually with a nicely manicured front lawn.  Next door would be a thatched hut or a one room house built up on stilts with nothing more than dirt separating the house from the road.  The people looked at us like we were crazy as we rocketed past them since not many Westerners trek quite that far off the beaten path.

We never made it to the park as we got sidetracked trying to find an apparently mythical waterfall.  It turned out to be a fun adventure however.  I learned that large glass 1 liter soda bottles turn into convenient rural gas stations once relieved of their original contents.  The gasoline is cut with some type of ethanol and dyed red before being poured into empty glass Pepsi bottles which are then sold at side of the road “gas stations” which are generally a small hut built out of whatever sticks were laying around with a raised platform to display the bottles…  In any other situation I would have thought that the dye was to differentiate it from drinking whiskey, but seeing as how they dye that red as well, it was quite likely entirely the same liquid altogether.  Once you have made your purchase of however many liters you need, the “attendant” fills your motorbike with a small plastic funnel.

After racing the sunset back to Nong Khai we rewarded ourselves for a hard days worth of moped riding by getting yet another 2 hour massage.

Day 6 – October 29, 2007

One thing about working on the road is that sometimes you just have to suck it up and spend the majority of a day working.  Now that said, sitting in a restaurant with high speed wireless access, beautiful views of the Mekong River with Laos just beyond it and copious amounts of beer – isn’t exactly a rough day at the office.  Today was one of those days.  We worked for a good 6 or 7 hours this morning/afternoon at a place called Good Food.  There is definitely a reason for the name albeit a basic and fairly obvious one.  The food is good.  After dining on aforementioned good food, we headed over for an all new kind of massage – a foot massage.  It is hard to imagine the gloriousness that can come from having knuckles dug into your feet and menthol applied to any and all bruises, but I can assure you it is both amazingly relaxing and wholly rejuvenating.  

We followed our foot massages with day number two of moped adventures.  It wasn’t quite as elaborate as yesterday, but slightly eventful all the same.  When we arrived to our mopeds today there was a new innertube for a tire sitting in the front basket of my bike.  I thought it was strange that someone had left it there, but thought nothing of it and tossed it to the side.  Quickly I realized that perhaps there had been a reason behind someone’s good Samaritan act and was wishing I had kept the tube.  Fortunately we found a tire shop quickly and although it cut into the moped adventure it didn’t entirely ruin it.  

We found what we thought was a “little” market off to the side of the road and decided to stop.  It turned out to be immense!  We walked up and down looking at live eels, gigantic fish swimming in tubs and even watched one being rescued that had tried to jump to it’s death by jumping out of it’s tub.  Looking back, I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t entirely aware of what it was doing….  There were all kinds of vegetables and fruits I had never seen before and there was an entire housewares department with every imaginable kitchen utensil.  I was particularly impressed with one woman who had designed her own automatic fly remover for her fish by attaching two of the animal hair fans I described yesterday to some type of ceiling fan motor and allowed it to run over her fish – needless to say, I knew where I was going to be buying fish if it became necessary for survival!

A quick trip back to Nong Khai, dinner at Good Food and more work…so goes the life of a nerd without borders.

Day 5 – October 28, 2007

I am beginning to see that it will be difficult to ever describe one particular day here as the most interesting or the most memorable.  We started our moped adventure with me trying to remember how to ride a moped.  After several almost collisions and/or wipe-outs, I finally started to get the hang of it and we headed out on the freeway South towards Udon Thani.  

The freeways in Thailand are interesting.  There are lanes – sort of – but people just pass in and out, mopeds and motor bikes stay on the far left – not quite on the freeway (as much as possible unless passing) and rather than slowing down when coming up on slower vehicles of any kind, cars just honk and expect people to get out of their way.  Learning to drive on the left wasn’t as difficult as I’d expected and the most challenging thing for me was remembering there was a hand brake (at least until we discovered the foot break).  

From Udon Thani we headed East to Ban Chiang.  Ban Chiang is an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is remarkably well preserved and dates from around 5,000 years ago.  There is a small museum showing several artifacts and then you can drive about ½ a mile down the road to Wat Pho Si which is both a temple and the site of the dig itself.  

We decided to take the backroads through the countryside back to Nong Khai.  This was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  We drove through rice fields with workers in traditional clothing, past beautiful trees with blue/green leaves, through towns that I’m sure never see tourists based on the way people looked at us and stopped at a market in the middle of nowhere that was for lack of a better description the Safeway for the local area.  There was a produce section which included everything from pineapples and bananas to things I could not even begin to describe.  The bulk foods section sold plates of dried shrimp, dried crickets, dried grasshoppers, dried scorpions (stinger intact) and small maggots.  Take your pick – one plate for 10 baht (slightly less than 30 cents).   The guy selling them was nice enough to offer samples…  Jared tried a dried shrimp and much to my chagrin I was offered the cricket.  After several deep breaths, multiple photos and under the careful scrutiny of every local within 10 km, I did eat it and quite honestly, it wasn’t that bad, just a little salty.  That said, I’m not sure I could have eaten an entire plate and I think they got more enjoyment out of watching my face eat it than they would have out of the 10 baht.  The meat section was primarily seafood and offered everything from eel to prawns to shrimp.  The vendors all carried small fans made out of some type of animal hair that they flicked constantly to keep the never ending horde of flies off of the raw meat.  As disappointed as they were that we didn’t buy any of the seafood, I hope that they were convinced the reasoning we couldn’t buy it was due to the fact that we were riding mopeds and had no place to put it, although that may be desperate thinking on my part.  

We made our way back to Nong Khai, successfully finishing somewhere between a 120 and 150 mile roundtrip moped ride before dark.  After a shower, a quick one hour Thai massage and some delicious Thai food, we hit the hay.

Day 3 – October 26, 2007

After the 3 am conference call, I have several more phone calls and am scheduled to cover iCopyright’s live response at 6 am.  By 5:30 I give up and get up and go work until 8.  Followed by a quick shower, Jared and I headed out to check out Nong Khai.  

We have absolutely perfect timing for a festival.  Different groups of men carve elaborate designs into freshly cut bamboo to build new shrines.  There are street vendors everywhere selling handicrafts and every imaginable kind of food – good food.  We walked all along the waterfront and were about to turn back when a local started calling us over – we mistakenly thought he wanted us to go drink with him.  Wishful thinking I suppose…  What he really wanted to show us were the long boat races taking place further down the river.

 As we walked toward the boat races, enjoying the cheering from the locals, we  passed a group of Buddhist monks who wanted to take their picture with us and then ran into another group of men carving a shrine.  They were carving, eating, drinking and singing.  One of the men stopped us and handed Jared a glass of dyed red whiskey over ice.  Jared obliging partook and thanked them.  Just as we were about to move on, my glass arrived.  Terrified that I was going to be drinking horrendous whiskey, yet hopeful it was something else due to the lack of red dye, I slowly lifted it to my lips.  With all of them watching in anticipation I smiled as I realized it was nothing more than bad beer poured over ice.  Thus began the next two hours of  eating, drinking and singing with the locals.  We drank cough syrup flavored whiskey, topped with soda water and beer - I can’t think of anything much worse except maybe the cough syrup flavored whiskey served warm and by itself.  The food consisted of  beef (I think) dipped in a spicy green sauce that was delicious, sticky rice, a couple of other things I didn’t recognize and later on – intestines.  Jared and I each graciously if not apprehensively took a piece and after 5 or so minutes of chewing came to the conclusion that if we just swallowed it like a pill it would probably go down.  They cooked all the meat over a small ceramic jug filled with hot coals – I’m not sick yet so I’m assuming they were hot enough to kill whatever may have been living in our mystery meat.

By 11:30  (a.m. – I know…I have no idea how we started drinking that early) we had to get going to catch the truck down to P.P. to hopefully see the Maekong fireballs – bubbles of methane gas that come out of the river at the end of Buddhist Lent.  They were sad to see us go but told us to come back another day and they would teach us how to do the shrine carving, and assured us that they loved me as a sister.  Uh huh…..

The ride to P.P. was full of other travelers, everyone from Peace Corp volunteers to people who would be traveling from 4 months – 2 years.  P.P was an interesting town and definitely ready for the festival.  We found out later that there were over 400,000 Thai’s there.  Not including the small number of farang.  The riverbanks were packed with people eagerly waiting to see the fireballs.  All around us, people were lighting floating lanterns that would fill like a hot air balloon and then take off into the air.  Around 9 pm, candles started floating down the river, by the thousands.  We unfortunately didn’t get to see the fireballs, but the experience of being there in and of itself was worth the trek.  

Now back in Thailand, we decided to take some time out at the border town of Nong Khai, until we could organise an overnight train back down to Bangkok. We hired bicycles and headed off to the Sculpture park...created by the same guy who made the Buddha Park across the water. It has been descibed as acid-induced modern art - which was quite accurate. I have the feeling this guy was slightly mad. His story describes him getting lost in the jungle, and sheltering in a cave, where he came across a hermit. This hermit taught him about buddhism and other ancient religions. Upon emerging he created the sculpture parks, in order to pass on this teaching to others.

When asked why he didnt become a monk of Buddhism, he replied 'how could he possibly be a monk when he was half man, half animal?.' Not a lot you can say to that!! When he died he asked for his body to be embalmed and placed in a plastic, fairy-light covered dome, surrounded by virtual fish tanks....which can be viewed on the top floor of his house. This was so creepy we had to leave!! 

Heute war ein sehr schoener Tag. Wir haben laenger geschlafen (nur einmal um 5:30 h durch Glockengebimmel unterbrochen) und sind dann aufgebrochen zu einem Skulpturenpark im Osten der Stadt. Die Fahrt dahin war sehr schoen, durch die Stadt, an Kuehen vorbei, durch eine Schule und einen Klosterhof hindurch, an lauter netten Menschen vorbei... Der Park selbst war auch sehr interessant, lauter grosse Figuren in einem sehr schoenen Garten... zum rumlaufen und anschauen wirklich sehr schoen, rein kuenstlerisch hat nich das ganze allerdings nicht so beeindruckend...

Nach einem sehr schoenen Mittagessen in der Lodge haben wir dann nochmal eine laengere Fahrradtour in die Doerfer westlich von Nong Khai, am Mekong entlang, an lauter Wats vorbei, durch sehr nette Strassen... Vor allem die Menschen waren unheimlich freundlich, haben uns zugewunken, gegruesst, den Weg erklaert... Insgesamt ein unheimlich schoener Ausflug, nur die Raeder waren nicht so toll, dh Hintern tut weh...

jetzt gibts noch ein leckeres Abendessen, und morgen geht's ab nach laos...