Goin' to Thailand

As we drove to Madrid from San Sebastian I found myself feeling a chaotic mixture of emotions. With only a few hours sleep the night before I still found the energy to enjoy some of the scenery on the way - a single robust tree in the middle of a field, a bird resting on an electrical wire, a baby antelope (or what seemed to be) running across an open field, a farmer herding a large group of sheep, a bright green winding valley sandwiched between two dry rocky hills. I was surprised that I was finding so many sights to enjoy feeling the way I was, but then too tired to continue I put on my headphones, closed my eyes, and listened to Coldplay. I knew a few of their songs but the song "Yes" caught particularly my attention. For those of you who know me well you will understand why.

My flight to Dubai was a couple of hours late leaving so instead of having a few hours to wait for my connecting flight we were quickly shown to our gates by an airport guide. It was a shame because the airport was full of interesting things to look at - perhaps on the return journey I will have time to check it out.

I arrived in Bangkok and I went outside to have a cigarette. Leaving the air conditioned airport I was shocked by the sauna-like weather outside. Even my hand-held fan gave me no relief from the extremely humid weather. Khon Kaen is no different. The only relief is indoors where there is air conditioning. At night the slight drop in temperature provides a little relief but air conditioning is still needed in your bedroom if you expect to get a good sleep.


My favourite things, after being here for only 24 hours, have been the food and the elephants that are lead through the streets at night by their trainer and helpers. My friend, Donald, says that the elephants are left to roam the forests during the day finding refuge from the heat, and are transported into the cities by truck at night when it is cooler. They are, of course, brought out for tourists who are willing to pay 20 bhat (€0,50) to get a small bag of sugarcane to feed them. After you've paid you can pet (but not pat, which was quickly explained to me by one of the helpers) the elephant and take pictures. Donald says that we'll be able to ride an elephant in some elephant village called Surin - that I'm looking forward to!

I'm learning the shoulds and shouldn'ts here. Like how the shirt I'm wearing in the photo isn't very appropriate cause you can see my bra strap. And how I can't take any photos of any buddha statues. And how (which I knew beforehand) women don't smoke in public (except stupid tourists like me). How you never touch a person's head and possibly even an elephant's. And how feet are considered vulgar. And how you greet someone with a "wâi" (the prayer-like gesture of hands near the chin). Besides all of the "rules" I'm breaking in my learning-curve phase, they just stare cause I'm a foreign chick - that's okay cause I'm probably doing a lot of staring too at the moment.