The Magnificent Seven do the Nong Khai area

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As I anticipated the last 2 weeks + blogging went out the window, blame it on the Chang, the partying, friends or the heat or maybe them all but I will now attempt a quick re cap.

Up north section 20-28th November'16

First of all, we had an amazing time!!!!! Big big thanks to Andrea and Wan for being such amazing hosts, tour guides, food advisors, driver, clothes suppliers(!), party organisers and for enabling us to get a glimpse of real Thai life. Thanks also to Debbie, Karen and Liam for just being there and sharing the experience with us and making us The Magnificent Seven! 😊

We all rendezvoused in the departure lounge at Bangkok airport and flew up to Udon Thani together, at this point I have to mention the inflight snack, a BLACK sandwich, yes totally black, I've never seen anything like it in my life but as long as you didn't look at it, it was almost edible!

We were met by Wan's family who took all our bags in their pick up while we started the first of many journeys in our 7 seater.

The rest of the week consisted of large amounts of eating and drinking, acquiring a stalker at our first restaurant, who lurked in the bushes behind our table for a good while - this is not a touristy area! Visiting markets, temples, Tescos, the river front, waterfalls, a Buddha Park, watching Wan eat all manner of strange things, including a frog!, a Sky Bridge and being blessed by a monk (that was my highlight), chuffing football and a visit to the local nightclub Ndau, where you got via the door with the no guns allowed sign and into a huge hall filled with tables of young people dancing, singing and drinking. Then the band came on and part way through their set played a track that sounded suspiciously like the intro to a UFO track, so that was it, down the front, dancing like loons only to realise it wasn't! But that didn't stop us oh no!! I have to say that is the first time a band has taken my picture ha ha. We ended up staying right to the end.

Now for Andrea and Wan's party, we knew this was something they held each time they come over to their house in Tha Bo and all the family come, presents are handed out, Christmas decorations go up and a feast is laid on. What we hadn't expected was the local police force to be there! but they were as they were the band! And at the end of the night the drum kit was loaded onto the back of the police truck, totally brilliant and totally bizarre. We were introduced to all the family and it wasn't long before everyone was joining in clapping and singing and having a good time.

We were asked to sing and as the beer was flowing freely I didn't need much encouragement, I don't think the Offspring gets heard much in this part of the world but Deb and I were most chuffed with our 20 baht tips for our efforts. It was a cracking night and I can't believe the family was going to be getting up again at the crack of dawn ready for work again. We all just lay around groaning for most of the next day.

Our final day as the M7 was spent in Udon Thani, we stayed in a lovely hotel and that night went out to sample the delights of the big city. What a contrast to where we had been. We went from small town and village life with barely another westerner in sight to a busy bustling, neon filled metropolis, with a good few dirty old western men with young Thai women. The idea was to get some food and do a pub crawl along bar street, the reality was we went into one bar, had some food and stayed the entire night. Well they were playing all the music we asked for, the booze was reasonably priced and we all had a seat - not that we stayed in them for long! At some point everyone was up dancing and Karen was up on the table when Motley Crüe was played! Great night.

The next day we said our goodbyes, Andrea and Wan were going back to Tha Bo, Liam was flying to London, which left the Fantastic Four headed to Phuket.

And The Magnificent Seven rode no more.

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Photos

Nong Khai & Tha Bo area
Wan and Andrea

Nong Khai
The Magnificent Seven

Nong Khai waterfront
Friendship bridge in distance

Wat Pha Tak Suea
The monk who blessed us and The Leicester City football team!

Wat Pha Tak Suea
Receiving a blessing

Party time
Loading up the drum kit!