I'm off to see the wizard

The Isan diet - not recommended by me!

Ten to six this morning, Beep Beep Beep, my lovely alarm clock is informing me that this was the ungodly hour I decided I should wake up last night. I still hadn't decided which train or route I was going to take today but I figured I'd get up and just go to the train station and decide there. Well after the third beep I was all over that alarm clock and decided it was unthinkable to get up now so I rolled back over. Not 30 minutes later when I was just getting into the nice deep sleep did the baby in the next room start screaming. And that wasn't even the worst part, the father was trying to cheer him up and was making these loud noises that I can't even begin to describe with any English words I know. So that was the first sign that my decision to stay in bed wasn't the right one, the second was the people in the room on my otherside. They must have been woke up by the baby so they started getting ready for their day and were making even more noise. That was it I had to get up and catch the next train, which was in 40 mins. I wasn't sure if I'd have a hot shower at the next place I stayed so it was mandatory that I took one there and it was soooo nice and HOT!! After that I quickly packed my bag up and walked over to the train station. I made it with enough time to get a small container of chicken fried rice for breakfast. Right before the train came one of the men working at the station came up to me and asked to see my ticket, I was in car 14 and usually there are only 8 cars so I was wondering what was up with that. He led me and a few other people down the tracks about 100m (I'm guessing here, I'm really bad with measurements) where we waited for the train. When it got there we had to climb up onto car 10, which wasn't an easy task with both of my bags and my rice and bottle of water, and then walk down 4 cars to our seats. Of course the person in the seat next to me is this old man wearing a full out winter jacket and winter hat, it must have been around 20 degrees by then. Anyways while I'm enjoying my breakfast he starts hacking up a lung right beside me. He was nice enough to try to spit his phlem out between the slots in the window instead of the floor right beside me. After that I went to the back of the car and sat in the doorway watching the fields fly by and the track appear from under the train. It was so nice with the warm sun on my face and the wind flying over me where my hair would be. I spent most of the 4 ½ hr ride out there until I arrived at Khorat aka Nakhon Ratchasima. Now there are a few reasons why I stopped here today, one was that I didn't feel like spending 13 hrs on the train. Another was that the guidebook said about the Sri Chompon hotel, “Rooms are reminiscent of the Shawshank Redemption”, which sounded really cool to me. And third was to go to Suan Sin restaurant for lunch b/c according to the guidebook again it had a very interesting menu. So when I got off the train I headed out to the hotel by food because it didn't look like that bad of a walk and I wanted to get a fell for the city. It was about 1 in the afternoon, hottest time of the day and carrying all that weight made me realize that this wasn't the best idea. After a good 20 minutes of walking and seeing that I was only 2/3 the way there I got in a bike rickshaw that took me the rest of the way. It was a good thing that I did too because the hotel didn't have a sign in English, infact nothing here does. So I go in and luckily one of the ladies there speaks a bit of English and she offers me a room with fan and if I want hot water its 20 baht more. Even though I was so hot I wanted to take a cold shower I took the hot one anyways and the guy took me up to show me the room. Now when I read in the guidebook about Shawshank, I thought it ment the room where Brooks kills himself but boy was I wrong. They ment the jail, the room was pretty large but very run down and the bathroom, well the bathroom deserves a whole paragraph on its own. But I wont bore you with that, basically I've got a squat toilet that at least flushes and a few inches to wash myself inbetween the door and sink. So the first order of business, get out my sandals so I could go take a shower, as soon as I started to get undressed to get in the shower someone knocks at my door. I throw back on my pants and shirt and it was the guy who showed me the room with a towel and soap and a bottle of water. Then I went and stripped and was walking into the bathroom and there was another knock at my door, so I just wrapped my towel around me and answered it but this time it was an old lady with a roll of toilet paper. She grinned from ear to ear and I thanked her for the toilet paper and finally got into the shower. After all that I finally headed out for lunch to Suan Sin, which took me a good hour to find. As I said before nothing has English signs here and most of the streets are missing the street signs. I stopped to ask for help a few times and used all of the Thai I've learnt. Now for those of you with weak stomachs you might want to jump down a few lines. So as I said before this place has an interesting menu, it recommends in the guidebook the bull penis salad and cow tails soup. So I had to order one of them and I'm starting to feel sick just writing about it. I'll just get it over with, the bull penis salad was hot and nasty, I almost lost it a few times and wanted to vomit all over myself. It was also really spicy and my lips swelled up and hurt. I also order beef and cows blood in soup, again disgusting and I think that their might have been cow brains and liver in there too, I'm not sure and frankly don't really need to know at this point. The waitress also suggested some beef with fat and sauce and it was really really good. I also had a plate of beef friend rice and I don't think I'll be eating anymore beef for a long time. Well I really wanted to try some weird food while I was here and I think this took the cake and then some. Anyways after lunch I was disgustingly full and decided to walk it off and head for an internet place to write all about it. It took me a good 45 mins to find the first internet place that wasn't even in my guidebook and it was completely full of Thai students so I went on to find the one from the gb. When I was right outside it a group of 4 school girls stopped and said hi to me. Then they asked their favorite question, “Whats your name?” I answered and they were as happy as could be and started to head off. I then saw the internet place and it was all boarded up, thanks guidebook. So I asked them where there was another one, they pointed to the one I just came from and I tried to tell them it was full but they had no idea what I was saying. It was really funny trying to explain it to them and I just said thank you and left. After that I wondered around look for another place on the way back to my hotel. Half way there I came across a sign in English saying “Famous cave within City” and also one saying something about Thai massage and herbal sauna. I headed in and first thing I noticed was it was a Temple and then a monk came up to me to say hi. He shoke my hand but didn't let go and just stood there talking to me while holding my hand. Finally he let go and led me into the cave while holding my arm. The cave was man made I believe but they had covered the whole thing with corals and it was amazing. So peaceful and quit inside, there was also a little pond in the corner with some fish in it. I sat there with the monk for a while talking to him, his English wasn't very good but he tried really hard. Then he gave me a bracelet for good luck and I headed out. Finally on my way back to my hotel I found another internet place and here I am now. I think this was the most detailed blog but thats b/c I've been waiting two hours to write it. Now I'm going ot head out to the night market and then off to bed early. Tomorrow I'm going to take a train over to Ubon, which is about 7 or 8 hours, woo hoo.

posted by Brandon Share @ 6:31 PM