1 February 1992 Meung Loie
The French waiter at Sang Khom had told us that the cotton flowering and tamarind festival was on this day but the procession was already over when we arrived at midday, we saw a few girls in elaborate head dress but that was all, later we saw one fine float in the festival grounds - perhaps this was the competition winner. Joan had separately read that this festival was held on the first full moon in February and hadn't expected it to be precisely the first day of February.
We first looked at the Meung Loei GH which was full but they sent us on to the Saraing Throng Hotel which we didn't like and finished up in the Thai Udon as recommended by Verena, our room included a free bottle of water and towels (obviously unusual) as well as a hot shower.
The festival was on for the whole of the first week and we paid 10B to enter the big festival area. Inside were many stalls selling clothes so we added a T-shirt, a pair of secateurs!, to our hoard of presents. There were several stages erected for shows, disco dancing, and a numbers game with a large display and benches for onlookers, though since we could not deduce the principle we didn't play. We ate at a stall sharing a salad, rice, Som Tam and a delicious barbecued fish from the Mekong for 110B.
The two girls at the next table were friendly as usual Speaking English with good accents, they were eating cockles and Som Tam and told us the stall also sold Kay Yang (barbequed chicken).
A group of very attractive girls were making up ready for the evening dance spectacle run by their school.
Joan decided to stay whilst I returned to the hotel to changed into long trousers and a long sleeved shirt ready for the evening festivities - I should have got a sweater as well. By the time I returned Joan was in conversation with a group of Thais one of whom spoke a little English. Food, whisky, coke and water was placed on their table, as with all others with numbers presumably indicating pre-orders. We were pressed to eat, biscuit snacks, phat phrik fried with chilli, marrow and green vegetables and a bowl of dried chilli, and whisky to drink.
The large seated crowd were entertained by dancing with great emphasis on graceful hand movements, the hands were often elongated with long stalks on the fingers with red or white cotton balls on the tip. At another time one person sang a boy was always there to dance beautifully. The band was two boys each with a set of three bongos providing a strong rhythm, others with guitar like instruments and several boys blowing through long vertical reeds, whilst two girls moved their hands delicately in time with the band throughout the evening.
Back at the hotel though the bed was very hard we slept extremely well untroubled by the nightclub below, no sign of singer and audience we had been warned to expect - perhaps all such noise had now transferred to action at the festival grounds.
2 February, Phu Kradung
Following the advice of Stefan and Verena we headed for the national park of Phu Kradung in the morning having abandoned the intention to go on to Nan. (We had also heard many good reports of smaller towns in the east. It was an inspired choice though it was not entirely clear this first day climbing to 1500m from close to sea level on a very hot humid day carrying heavy rucksacks was not the the best introduction.
It took me five minutes over three hours the last part up step ladders was a test of stamina which I failed arriving with a headache, perhaps from the heat to be welcomed on the very last step up by a hardened thirty plus traveller with a greeting I will never forget
'You give me hope for the future'
- knowing he could keep going longer at this travelling game.
Whilst recovering at the top I seriously wondered if Joan would make it for she had dropped well behind within the first half hour so I waited and was pleased to hear her knee was OK. She told me to go ahead and she would follow at her own pace. In fact she arrived over an hour later but with a smile on her face, although just before she had felt giddy and diagnosing her problem as low blood sugar had revived with coca cola and ice.
Most visitors had walked up light, their main baggage having been carried up by porters carrying perhaps 40+kg with individual's small bags hung on a huge bamboo pole which they supported on their shoulders for 5B/kg. Good money for them but a hard way to make a living.
We were on top of a large plateau with a vegetation quite different to that below because of the lower temperature. It reminded us of Scotland. The camping ground was 3km away, several hundred tents were pitched for hire, some red, some blue and some green. We booked a tent at the office, went to another to collect four blankets, 40B each per night.
The tent site was about a third full with young Thais. Many were cooking, mostly just reheating their own food over small wood fires. Others were sitting around the fires and singing to a guitar. The atmosphere was superb even more friendly than usual.
That evening we went to eat at the most crowded of several restaurants where we were given a restricted menu (in English?) thus eating quite differently to the Thais. A big mistake for I was to suffer from diarrhea for the next two days.
We got talking to a group of friends who came and sat next to us, they were much older than the campers in the 21 to 35 age bracket. For the first time I was trying out my Thai properly but as so often found at least two who spoke better English. Nevertheless I made good progress and still remember the phrase they instilled later that day 'phom phuut paasah thai daay nitnoy' (I can speak a little Thai - that's all I now recall of the language.) They had rented one of about a dozen bungalows from Bangkok.
Somluk who was particularly outgoing and attractive decided to adopt Joan and I as mother maair and father phao since she was the same age as our daughter Judy.
We made friends with them all and saw the first five on several future visits to Bangkok concluding in year 2000 with ten of our extended family being invited to Venus's house (another of Pranee's sisters) in Thonburi across the river from Bangkok.
Thawatchay 35, his wife Pranee and their 4 year old son Kim
Sakauart who first spoke to us and his wife Taniya
Dim, Pranee's sister and her friend Ping Ping who was 21 years old
Somluk and her policeman boyfriend Son
That night they invited us to have coffee in their bungalow, but they didn't partake themselves, though the two men drank whisky.
Thawatchay worked in a bank and he was the best English speaker, he was always singing Frank Sinatra tunes.
Ping Ping, quiet but very nice was another with good English She was of Chinese extraction though the family had lived in Thailand for several generations, she worked for a large company translating between Chinese and Thai. She read a pamphlet we had been given about the park with a good English accent though we helped with the meaning of words like vegetation, limited selection, protected area.
They all made us very welcome and gave us different snacks to try, chips , packets of dried fish with batter slivers, sheets of thin roasted pork (or maybe they were pork skin), sandwich of chilli and dried pork, pea soup and as we were leaving sweets. By the time we left Pranee and son had gone to bed. We arranged to meet at 6am, sunset and sunrise are the two colossal attractions of this venue.
We found the floor of the tent very uneven but we were soon fast asleep, though I twice woke with severe stomach cramps and had to find the toilet.
3 February
All the campers around us woke at 5pm and by 5:30 the had left to see the sunrise. Our new friends had overslept and just after six we left to follow in the tracks of the other. We arrived late at Sun Rise Cliff but were consoled by the fact that a mist had spoiled the effect, but were amazed to see such a huge crowd of Thais. They were taking photographs, laughing and joking as always. We bought a cup drink of cocoa made with condensed milk from a nearby stall to counteract he cool of early morning.
They were late but non of us made it for breakfast at eight, but we finally met up at ten for our intended 15km walk half around of the plateau.They were carrying packed lunches and made us another two from the remainder of their breakfast, rice of course and phat phrik muu. We went first to Phon Pos a spectacular waterfall that you could walk behind as with Gladys near Neath.
Then back to the main track through moorland with pine trees and lunched near Thamso Nuo by a stream, next through an area thick with pampas grass and by 3pm had arrived at Lom Sak cliff to find a crowd of Thais had already gathered and were waiting to see the other attraction of this 'island' - the sunset. The west facing cliff like the morning's east facing cliff was absolutely sheer but this one had an impressive overhang on which seemingly everyone was intent on being photographed. The event began with the sun as an intense red round ball but became even more spectacular as a red sky - we too were hooked by this natural wonder.
Among the plants was one of the insect eating variety which Joan, observant as ever, spotted growing out of the end of a leaf stalk. Pranee later spotted one for Kim but this was growing directly from the ground - perhaps a later stage in its development.
I made good progress with Thai by writing down short sentences as learned from my hosts with surprising success, having found it virtually impossible to remember from the sound alone. Others we made up together like 'You, Joan are an old lady but still very beautiful'. Thatwatchai had a great reportoire of English love songs a favorite being 'Your Cheating Heart' but he also sang and then explained the words of Thai songs.
Had twice had to find enough cover enough to rush to the toilet, not easy on this plateau, and even then soiled my pants to follow the others home rather than get lost on the final walk home in the dark without even a torch let alone a sweater.
In fact we all got lost on the way to Kaew Pond, so using my compass as usual took a very small track north to cross the main east west route but not before Joan had fallen to her knees.
We passed many Thai groups enjoying the chance to wear their woolly hats and padded anoraks as they sung to a guitar. They were still singing round their camp fires when we went to bed for a sound sleep, happy after such a wonderful day.
4 February
We decided to take an extra night before getting an overnight bus to Bangkok so I extended the booking the tent and blankets, but not in time to stop the blanket lady coming to collect them, sorted very amicably by a visit to the office.
Walked out to Nok-An the sunrise cliff very late at 12:30 and found the view was quite magical even though no-one else was there and Walking west Joan as usual began to take notice of the birds, she saw a very large one which she thought was a hornbill. I became aware of the trees, most were green, maybe evergreen but some were in bud like oak and others with young spring leaf and catkins like our hazel.
At the top of the mountain I came across a group of young Thai, one was great fun, Joan arriving somewhat later described as a Tudor like character - referencing a friend of our son Geoff - as he discovered I had a slight knowledge of Thai he asked me to descend and then to ascend again which I did, thinking they wanted a photograph. But no it was clearly entirely for amusement and joining in the joke my feigned struggle to reach the top was well appreciated. Another an electrical engineering student came over to try out his English. We all went for a drink at a nearby stall, the Tudor type was in his element obviously teasing the middle aged waitress who also joined in the fun. They gave me a colourless liquid to drink saying it was water but no it was Aqua Vite of Thai or Chinese origin, when I showed too much of a liking for it they quickly substituted water and showed n me the bottle - 40% Chinese whisky with a label like a beer bottle. They asked us to walk with them to the tent site but we parted company to continue our walk. The left Tudor with his flag at the front, a essence of the Phu Kradung, good humour, friendliness and fun a pity Joan didn't take a photograph!
Still we had made the correct decision and shortly met up with our old group and stayed at the next cliff for sunset.
Tawatchay was sleeping off the last night's whisky, I recorded he seems to be a non stop drinker. Very perceptive since it later became clear he was an alcoholic, probably the nicest of a wonderful good humoured bunch - a keen football player, socialiser, entertainer and singer - but eventually his wife and his son had to escape decamping to live with her Venus in the house next door. We later learned he had been walking with Pranee close to a dyke when knocked unconscious by a falling coconut (a real hazard in the tropics as we later found) fell into the klong and was only saved from drowning by his wife Pranee. We often wondered if this traumatic event was the source of his troubles.
Walking back after dark we again relied solely on my compass to walk north and eventually cross the east west track. Dinner at the usual stall including omelette khai then back to their bungalow where the main preoccupation was the preparation for depart tomorrow by bookings on the overnight VIP bus.
Nevertheless I spent a lot of time with Somluk and Ping Ping the best communicators in a mixture of Thai and English. Somluk offered us the chance of staying in her apartment in Bangkok and was somewhat disappointed when we accepted Pranees offer instead. However it emerged that Somluk was going south with her boyfriend prolonging the break so we might have been alone in the flat.
Finding our way to Pranee and Tawatchay's new house in an area newly reclaimed from low level swamp near the river would not be easy but were given a map which included five water crossings and one to avoid, three simply balancing (with heavy rucksacks) on strategically placed fallen tree trunks, one by small concrete bridge and another by bamboo bridge.
5 February
Left early just after six for meung Loei hoping for a seat on the evening VIP bus to Bangkok like the others. A warden accompanied us on the way down through the park and was soon pointing out monkeys, birds and newly deposited elephant dung all of which we might have missed without him.
Hoped to get a picture of Joan squatting over the elephant dung.
Surprised that the walk down took two and a half hours, and took a tuk tuk to the small village nearby and waited only 30 mins for a bus to Loei.
Walked to the Meung Loei GH to enquire about the night bus but the receptionist sent us onto the Luang hotel but it was fully booked so we walked briskly back to the first GH to take a shower by which time Joan was at the end of her tether, the effects of the rapid descent.
First task was to confirm our return flight with Gulf Air, we went to the Post Office to phone their Bangkok office for but found they only dealt with overseas calls. I in fact made the call at the King Hotel.
A French resident came to our aid with alternative ways for night travel to Bangkok, although he had been only three months in Thailand he was able to speak fluently. He showed us his photos of the festival procession we had missed and they were impressive, in others he had joined with the two French waiters we had met in Sang Khom. As regards our onward travel arrangements he drew a blank with Air Coaches, then suggested bus to Udon Thani for train to Bangkok recommending to first buy a third class seat then upgrade to second class or a sleeper if one was available as advance booking can only be done at main stations. That day's train tickets could only be bought 60 mins before departure. The suggestion which worked we took was an ordinary government buses but such tickets could only be bought 30 mins before departure.
It was a long crowded journey on a fully loaded bus which took 12 hours, with people sitting on plank seat extensions in the aisle. I was extremely glad to have opted for the seat opposite the rear door because of ample leg room, even though the space in front was shared with luggage and people sitting on the floor. Joan offered her seat to a mother with a baby but was quickly found an alternative by the conductor - to sit on the sack of rice in front of me. The train then seemed like the better option missed, but to sit in a normal bus seat with its inadequate leg room would have been far worse. The difficulty of getting tickets was perhaps due to a co-incidental clash of the Loei Cotton Festival and the Chinese new Year.
The French waiter at Sang Khom had told us that the cotton flowering and tamarind festival was on this day but the procession was already over when we arrived at midday, we saw a few girls in elaborate head dress but that was all, later we saw one fine float in the festival grounds - perhaps this was the competition winner. Joan had separately read that this festival was held on the first full moon in February and hadn't expected it to be precisely the first day of February.
We first looked at the Meung Loei GH which was full but they sent us on to the Saraing Throng Hotel which we didn't like and finished up in the Thai Udon as recommended by Verena, our room included a free bottle of water and towels (obviously unusual) as well as a hot shower.
The two girls at the next table were friendly as usual Speaking English with good accents, they were eating cockles and Som Tam and told us the stall also sold Kay Yang (barbequed chicken).
A group of very attractive girls were making up ready for the evening dance spectacle run by their school.
Joan decided to stay whilst I returned to the hotel to changed into long trousers and a long sleeved shirt ready for the evening festivities - I should have got a sweater as well. By the time I returned Joan was in conversation with a group of Thais one of whom spoke a little English. Food, whisky, coke and water was placed on their table, as with all others with numbers presumably indicating pre-orders. We were pressed to eat, biscuit snacks, phat phrik fried with chilli, marrow and green vegetables and a bowl of dried chilli, and whisky to drink.
The large seated crowd were entertained by dancing with great emphasis on graceful hand movements, the hands were often elongated with long stalks on the fingers with red or white cotton balls on the tip. At another time one person sang a boy was always there to dance beautifully. The band was two boys each with a set of three bongos providing a strong rhythm, others with guitar like instruments and several boys blowing through long vertical reeds, whilst two girls moved their hands delicately in time with the band throughout the evening.
Back at the hotel though the bed was very hard we slept extremely well untroubled by the nightclub below, no sign of singer and audience we had been warned to expect - perhaps all such noise had now transferred to action at the festival grounds.
2 February, Phu Kradung
Following the advice of Stefan and Verena we headed for the national park of Phu Kradung in the morning having abandoned the intention to go on to Nan. (We had also heard many good reports of smaller towns in the east. It was an inspired choice though it was not entirely clear this first day climbing to 1500m from close to sea level on a very hot humid day carrying heavy rucksacks was not the the best introduction.
'You give me hope for the future'
- knowing he could keep going longer at this travelling game.
 |
| The one on the left welcome me with 'You give me hope for the future' |
Whilst recovering at the top I seriously wondered if Joan would make it for she had dropped well behind within the first half hour so I waited and was pleased to hear her knee was OK. She told me to go ahead and she would follow at her own pace. In fact she arrived over an hour later but with a smile on her face, although just before she had felt giddy and diagnosing her problem as low blood sugar had revived with coca cola and ice.
Most visitors had walked up light, their main baggage having been carried up by porters carrying perhaps 40+kg with individual's small bags hung on a huge bamboo pole which they supported on their shoulders for 5B/kg. Good money for them but a hard way to make a living.
We were on top of a large plateau with a vegetation quite different to that below because of the lower temperature. It reminded us of Scotland. The camping ground was 3km away, several hundred tents were pitched for hire, some red, some blue and some green. We booked a tent at the office, went to another to collect four blankets, 40B each per night.
The tent site was about a third full with young Thais. Many were cooking, mostly just reheating their own food over small wood fires. Others were sitting around the fires and singing to a guitar. The atmosphere was superb even more friendly than usual.
 |
| TENT HIRE at PHRU KRADUNG |
 |
| OUR FIRST MEETING, Sakauart spoke first. |
 |
| Rear - Sakauart and Taniya, Ping Ping, Son and Somluk, Thawatchay, Joan, front left Pranee and son Kim |
 |
| SOMLUK and Brian |
Thawatchay 35, his wife Pranee and their 4 year old son Kim
Sakauart who first spoke to us and his wife Taniya
Dim, Pranee's sister and her friend Ping Ping who was 21 years old
Somluk and her policeman boyfriend Son
That night they invited us to have coffee in their bungalow, but they didn't partake themselves, though the two men drank whisky.
Thawatchay worked in a bank and he was the best English speaker, he was always singing Frank Sinatra tunes.
 |
| We camped but our friends had hired a bungalow together |
They all made us very welcome and gave us different snacks to try, chips , packets of dried fish with batter slivers, sheets of thin roasted pork (or maybe they were pork skin), sandwich of chilli and dried pork, pea soup and as we were leaving sweets. By the time we left Pranee and son had gone to bed. We arranged to meet at 6am, sunset and sunrise are the two colossal attractions of this venue.
We found the floor of the tent very uneven but we were soon fast asleep, though I twice woke with severe stomach cramps and had to find the toilet.
3 February
All the campers around us woke at 5pm and by 5:30 the had left to see the sunrise. Our new friends had overslept and just after six we left to follow in the tracks of the other. We arrived late at Sun Rise Cliff but were consoled by the fact that a mist had spoiled the effect, but were amazed to see such a huge crowd of Thais. They were taking photographs, laughing and joking as always. We bought a cup drink of cocoa made with condensed milk from a nearby stall to counteract he cool of early morning.
They were late but non of us made it for breakfast at eight, but we finally met up at ten for our intended 15km walk half around of the plateau.They were carrying packed lunches and made us another two from the remainder of their breakfast, rice of course and phat phrik muu. We went first to Phon Pos a spectacular waterfall that you could walk behind as with Gladys near Neath.
Then back to the main track through moorland with pine trees and lunched near Thamso Nuo by a stream, next through an area thick with pampas grass and by 3pm had arrived at Lom Sak cliff to find a crowd of Thais had already gathered and were waiting to see the other attraction of this 'island' - the sunset. The west facing cliff like the morning's east facing cliff was absolutely sheer but this one had an impressive overhang on which seemingly everyone was intent on being photographed. The event began with the sun as an intense red round ball but became even more spectacular as a red sky - we too were hooked by this natural wonder.
Among the plants was one of the insect eating variety which Joan, observant as ever, spotted growing out of the end of a leaf stalk. Pranee later spotted one for Kim but this was growing directly from the ground - perhaps a later stage in its development.
 |
| PITCHER PLANTS |
I made good progress with Thai by writing down short sentences as learned from my hosts with surprising success, having found it virtually impossible to remember from the sound alone. Others we made up together like 'You, Joan are an old lady but still very beautiful'. Thatwatchai had a great reportoire of English love songs a favorite being 'Your Cheating Heart' but he also sang and then explained the words of Thai songs.
Had twice had to find enough cover enough to rush to the toilet, not easy on this plateau, and even then soiled my pants to follow the others home rather than get lost on the final walk home in the dark without even a torch let alone a sweater.
In fact we all got lost on the way to Kaew Pond, so using my compass as usual took a very small track north to cross the main east west route but not before Joan had fallen to her knees.
We passed many Thai groups enjoying the chance to wear their woolly hats and padded anoraks as they sung to a guitar. They were still singing round their camp fires when we went to bed for a sound sleep, happy after such a wonderful day.
4 February
We decided to take an extra night before getting an overnight bus to Bangkok so I extended the booking the tent and blankets, but not in time to stop the blanket lady coming to collect them, sorted very amicably by a visit to the office.
Walked out to Nok-An the sunrise cliff very late at 12:30 and found the view was quite magical even though no-one else was there and Walking west Joan as usual began to take notice of the birds, she saw a very large one which she thought was a hornbill. I became aware of the trees, most were green, maybe evergreen but some were in bud like oak and others with young spring leaf and catkins like our hazel.
 |
| SUNSET on PHRU KRADUNG |
Still we had made the correct decision and shortly met up with our old group and stayed at the next cliff for sunset.
 |
| Note the 1500 metre drop to the land below |
 |
| Meeting to watch SUNSET |
Nevertheless I spent a lot of time with Somluk and Ping Ping the best communicators in a mixture of Thai and English. Somluk offered us the chance of staying in her apartment in Bangkok and was somewhat disappointed when we accepted Pranees offer instead. However it emerged that Somluk was going south with her boyfriend prolonging the break so we might have been alone in the flat.
Finding our way to Pranee and Tawatchay's new house in an area newly reclaimed from low level swamp near the river would not be easy but were given a map which included five water crossings and one to avoid, three simply balancing (with heavy rucksacks) on strategically placed fallen tree trunks, one by small concrete bridge and another by bamboo bridge.
5 February
Left early just after six for meung Loei hoping for a seat on the evening VIP bus to Bangkok like the others. A warden accompanied us on the way down through the park and was soon pointing out monkeys, birds and newly deposited elephant dung all of which we might have missed without him.
 |
| JOAN with PARK WARDEN |
Hoped to get a picture of Joan squatting over the elephant dung.
 |
| FRESH ELEPHANT DUNG |
 |
| LAST VIEWS OF PHRU KRADUNG |
 |
| JOAN LEAVES PHRU KRADUNG PARK |
First task was to confirm our return flight with Gulf Air, we went to the Post Office to phone their Bangkok office for but found they only dealt with overseas calls. I in fact made the call at the King Hotel.
A French resident came to our aid with alternative ways for night travel to Bangkok, although he had been only three months in Thailand he was able to speak fluently. He showed us his photos of the festival procession we had missed and they were impressive, in others he had joined with the two French waiters we had met in Sang Khom. As regards our onward travel arrangements he drew a blank with Air Coaches, then suggested bus to Udon Thani for train to Bangkok recommending to first buy a third class seat then upgrade to second class or a sleeper if one was available as advance booking can only be done at main stations. That day's train tickets could only be bought 60 mins before departure. The suggestion which worked we took was an ordinary government buses but such tickets could only be bought 30 mins before departure.
It was a long crowded journey on a fully loaded bus which took 12 hours, with people sitting on plank seat extensions in the aisle. I was extremely glad to have opted for the seat opposite the rear door because of ample leg room, even though the space in front was shared with luggage and people sitting on the floor. Joan offered her seat to a mother with a baby but was quickly found an alternative by the conductor - to sit on the sack of rice in front of me. The train then seemed like the better option missed, but to sit in a normal bus seat with its inadequate leg room would have been far worse. The difficulty of getting tickets was perhaps due to a co-incidental clash of the Loei Cotton Festival and the Chinese new Year.
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