The Girl in the Big Mango

Sorry, I forgot.

Merry Belated Christmas!!!

We now have a big election coming up. It’s tomorrow.

People who couldn’t go to the province they were registered in, and preferred to vote where they actually lived now, already registered and voted last weekend. Which resulted in alcohol ban from last Friday at 6pm.

The real thing is tomorrow. Therefore, the country is (supposedly) dry again. Started 6pm today.

Basically, when we have some election, the area will be dry from 6pm of the day before election until midnight of the election day(s).

Rose and I had a couple of drinks last night, after the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Which is a good enough movie to pass a couple of hours. Anyway, so I had a bottle of Asahi and Rose wouldn’t make up her mind what she wanted to drink.

Here came Lee Shamrock to save our night. He ordered each of us a pint of Hoegaarden (latest member of the family at the Dubliner Bangkok). Not bad, really. But Rose didn’t feel like drinking. So, she swapped our pints (when I had 1/5 of it left, and she had half left) when I went to the bog. And she poured that 1/5 pint into the half one later on.

And I didn’t feel like drinking too!!!!

It was a 3 day weekend here (again), and my friend, Stephan, invited me to go up to Mukdahan with him. His family live there. So does our mutual friend, Patrick. So, off we went.

We left Bangkok on Saturday early morning, and arrived in Mukdahan 7 hours later. Stephan’s driver used to be in F1, I believe.

It was very nice to see Ta and Alex (Stephan’s wife and son) again also. It’s been a long time. The first night, they took me out to dinner by the Mekong River. Nice food. And a bit windy also. After dinner, we went to Boss bar where we started to wonder if it was a gay bar.

We seemed to be there a bit too early, as it was literally empty when we got there. After a few drinks, we moved on to Grand Hotel Karaoke. We were the third table in there.

And before we all fell asleep, we moved on to Grand Hotel Disco. Now, this place was supposed to be full of actions and shows and people, according to Patrick. It was almost empty again when we got there. Not sure what was happening. Or NOT happening as the case may be.

It was a Saturday night, and they got no shows whatsoever on stage. It’s about two hours later that a band started playing.

All teenage boys, with a singer who couldn’t bloody sing.

Noise pollution it was. And we headed home just in time before we all lost our hearings as the music was so unbelievably loud.

The temperature was about 19C at 1:30am. You would think it would not be too hot in the day.

Well, it was about 32C the next afternoon.

Patrick took me down to the Mekong river. Across the river, that’s Laos.

Along the river on Thailand side, there are many shops and stuff - called Indochina Market.

(Yes, some of the locals wear a jacket during the day where it is 32C.)

This one reminded me of Tom. Want some more garlic? Hehehe.

Next stop was Mukdahan Tower (the locals call it Hor Keaw).

Admission fee was 20 THB, which is the same price for a Thai and a foreigner. No dual pricing policy here. You can walk 360degree up there to enjoy the view. In the ball on top of the observation deck, there were some Buddha statues.

After this, Patrick took me to a temple on a hill. I can’t remember the name of the temple.

This’s where the monks live.

Here’s where they keep drinking water.

We then came back home for a little rest. Then, drove down to the Indochina Market again, this time with Stephan, Ta and Alex.

Cute little boy he is. While he was running around, he actually fell and landed on his forehead before bouncing back. He didn’t cry. I mean… he didn’t even make any noise out of it. And not too long, he started running around exploring shops again. Adorable!

We didn’t do anything much this evening, just dinner and karaoke, as we planned to get up early the next morning.

We did wake up early. Ish.

Before it started getting too hot, we made our way a bit out of the city centre to Ta’s village. She lived there for about six years, and her mother moved to the city centre.

From the looks of things, it must be freezing at night out here.

In front of many houses, they have this thing in front.

Apparently, there is a Widow Ghost around. So, they put this in front of the house to fool the ghost so she leaves the real men inside the house alone.

We spent some more time down the Mekong river, discussing how illegal immigrants come into Thailand.

Then, back to the compound where I started packing. And found a mobile vendor. I mean, literally mobile.

After some rest, Stephan and Patrick took me to the Night Market for a bite to eat before my journey back home.

Quite lively for a tiny town.

I took a photo of one certain street vendor..

When the flash went off, the guy in the photo jumped probably thinking he was struck by lightening or something, which made all his “colleagues” laughed.

I took a VIP bus (24 seats) back to Bangkok, leaving Mukdahan at 8:10pm and arriving Bangkok at 4:45am.

It was a wonderful weekend. Lovely to see everyone again. And Alex is definitely adorable! A big Thank You to Stephan, Ta and Patrick. You all are great.
A few more pics from this trip can be found here.