Nong Khai, Thailand - September 2012

Sitting here in a suburban coffee shop after a day at work, it's hard to imagine that a year ago, my boyfriend and I were backpacking in Southeast Asia. I'd go back in a second, even if it means withstanding outrageous humidity, daily downpours, and instant ants whenever a certain someone gets cookie crumbs all over the bed. Instead, I'll have to settle for a little reminiscing.

The border crossing from Laos to Thailand was relatively painless, unless you find blazing heat and squeezing into a very full minibus painful. Under normal circumstances, these things might be insufferable, but in Southeast Asia, it's just your standard getting-from-one-place-to-another experience. I was far more distressed by the over-priced border convenience store snacks and Steve's insistence on buying them.

The minibus took us over the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge on the Mekong and deposited us on the other side, where there were surprisingly few tuk-tuks awaiting our arrival. We negotiated a trip into Nong Khai, although we weren't entirely sure where, specifically, we were going. As usual, we'd planned to roll in and wander around, clueless, inquiring of passing strangers about hotel rooms until we either found one of a suitable price or gave up and settled on some place full of ants with a bathroom drain of questionable quality.

After asking the driver to drop us off on a deserted thoroughfare which, according to my "map sense" (ability to memorize maps and apply knowledge with varying accuracy) was where we wanted to be, we began our hotel search. We looked at two places, both of them ten dollars, and one of them far superior to the other, which we naturally chose. It ended up being one of the nicer places we stayed on our trip--pristine, good wifi, television, and daily room cleaning/soap replenishment. 

And it was, in fact, where we wanted to be, which is generally in the middle of things. Our initial observation was also correct: Nong Khai is not a particularly busy place. I'd read that it was "sleepy", but for some unknown reason I often take "sleepy" to mean "charming, atmospheric, and popular". Other people see the word as a synonym for "boring" and immediately skip to the next section of the guidebook. There must be some sort of happy medium, but I've never found any happy mediums before.

Sculpture park. Please excuse the weird filter, it wasn't my idea.

The most interesting attraction is the somewhat bizarre sculpture park, Sala Keoku, nearby. Steve and I rented bicycles and made the few kilometer ride out, paid the 20 baht entrance fee, and had a look around. It was definitely worth it: huge, creepy, Buddhism- and Hindu-inspired sculptures of snakes, Buddha, and life-cycle interpretations. There's another sculpture park by the same artist near Vientiane, which he did before he was exiled from Laos, and I wish we'd gone. It poured down rain on the way back; I suppose that's what happens when you go to Southeast Asia during the rainy season. 

The next day, we left Nong Khai for Udon Thani, a large city that's an important transit point for travelers, and transferred to an overnight bus to Chiang Mai. We had a few hours to kill and ended up spending most of it at a fantastically cheap and wonderful mall food court. We also played badminton with some kids until we lost the birdie over a fence. We were nice and sweaty for our long, uncomfortable bus ride. Every time I take an overnight bus, I always swear it's the last time....