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Published: March 22nd 2010
Korns with Parents
Korn and her Mum and DadHow yis, sorry it's been a couple of weeks since my last entry here but I've got a good excuse. I've been in the back end of nowhere, a reasonably small village called Sanom about an hour outside of Surin town. When I went to use the only computer with internet about a week ago to contribute here, when loading up some photos from my SD card, I managed to get my SD card an STD (see what I just did there?). So once I realized that the computer was bugged out, rather than compromise email accounts/passwords etc... I logged out and aborted the mission. However here I am now and I will try recap on as much as I can, it's been a pretty chilled but yet quite enjoyable 14 days. So where to begin?
A week into my arrival to Chiang Mai, I was just getting settled back into things and decided I was ready to get a move on and check out some of the lesser seen parts of this amazing and diverse country. Being that I'm also a sucker for a good festival and Paddys Day was not far off, I spoke with Korn about what our
Korns Mum Dance Group
Korns mum got this picture framed and is in a very important position in the family home. Kinda proud of this one! options might be. I'd done St. Paddys Day here in Chiang Mai before and wanted out of here, so I was well informed of a flower festival in her family village of Sanom taking place over 4 days starting on conveniently, yep you guessed it, St. Patricks Day!!! Perfect!!!
So off we popped down to the bus station on Saturday 6th March and booked our 2 tickets for the Monday. The bus journey comprised of a 15 hour trip through the night, beginning at 6.30 pm. It was a VIP bus, very comfortable, loads of leg room, reclining seats, buttons for massage's, actually reminded me alot of the Thai airways upgrade I mentioned in the last blog. In fact, because we where travelling at night and it was but a week since I flew 16 hours to get to Thailand, at times I would forget that we where travelling on land, bumps in the road felt like turbulence and I couldn't see anything out the windows. There was a bus steward serving snacks which also added to the illusion of flying, not an unpleasant experience but still travelling for 15 hours can take it's toll. Had the option of flying
Paddys Day
Representing with Korn been available I would of opted for that, but where we were going really is in the back end of nowhere as far as us foreigners are concerned so no flight service is available.
We arrive in the blistering heat to the bus station in Surin. The place was bustling with people travelling all over the country but this was where I first noticed that there wasn't one foreigner in sight. We still had another hour to travel ahead of us to get us to Korns family in Sanom. To make this last leg of the trip we had to wait for about 40 minutes for the bus driver to finish his breakfast, finish talking to everyone and anyone he happened to bump into, then load us into the 'bus'. It was actually a very very old Hi-Ace van, quite possibly the very first one off the assembly line, complete with no front seat belt and a driver who I don't think knew how to drive as the van kept stuttering and stopping at regular intervals. I was bunged into the front passenger seat beside the driver, the one without the seat belt, due to the fact that the van
wasn't made with the intention of carrying anyone over the height of 5 ft 6''. Along the way we picked up people along side the road with the large bags of rice or whatever feed for their cattle they where carrying until it appeared like we where trying to beat a Guinness book of world records attempt at how many people you can squash into a Hi-Ace. I think we obliterated whatever the last record happened to be.
Eventually we made it to the village and as it turned out, the driver lived only a few doors down from Korns family so he dropped us right to the door. Here I met Korns family for the first time. All of the lovely people and not a word of English between them. Their home was really basic and made up of corrugated sheets of aluminum. We would sleep under a mosquito net on a mattress placed on the floor especially for me and Korn. Bedtime was at 8pm up at 6am. The toilet was an out house and I'll never get used to the squatting toilet as opposed to the ones where ya get a good sit down and read the
newspaper. These toilets are not uncommon in these parts of the world and I was prepared for this. Also I was prepared for the fact that they don't use toilet paper but rather the wipe with your hands and basin of water approach and then just wash your hands when done. I packed toilet rolls with me for just this eventuality but of course washing your hands after each approach is always a must. What I wasn't prepared for was the throw buckets of water over yourself to shower approach. The water would be freezing sending personal parts of your anatomy hiding until it was safe to come back out again. Remember the Matty Hislop cleansing ritual in Father Ted when Ted and Dougal wanted to give up smoking and roller skating for Lent and you'll pretty much get the picture. But you do get used to it to a limited degree.
At night time, they would along with all the village, go into the fields collecting crickets to eat for dinner or breakfast. On St Patricks Day Korns father caught a King Cobra in the field. He heard something hissing in the dark, seen the cobras head, picked up
a lump of wood and clunked it over the head as ya do. Two thoughts came to mind, the first one was the St. Patricks Day/Snakes connection, the second thought was, yummy gimme some. They drained the snakes stomach into a glass and mixed it with Loh Koh (rice wine something like we make into poitin with spuds) and down the hatch it went. Then I washed down the snakes heart or was it a gland I'm not sure as noone had the English to tell me, but it made the top of my tongue numb which was funny. Then we ate the snake itself which was quite delicious. Another popular dish we enjoyed on many nights alongside the crickets (the snake was a one off which I was very lucky to of been able to try), was Ant Eggs. Sounds disgusting but actually if you allow yourself to immerse into your surroundings and the cultures, taste really nice.
Now onto the festival. It's called the Dhok Jan festival or flower festival and it involved a parade which made up for me missing the one back home for Paddys Day. People come from other villages in Surin displaying whatever their
village was mostly known for, most villages where infamous for the their Thai Silks or Rice farming. There was traditional Thai dancing in abundance and the parade concluded in a field where each of the towns dancers danced off in front of the Mayor (I think that's who he was), and a winning village was chosen but I don't have any idea what they won, I think just the bragging rights. It was a really fun few days and each night they had some famous Thai singers play in concert. But as much fun as it all was, with all these different towns meeting in one place, at night time there were quite a few fights breaking out but the Thai police was all over them in seconds. Really made Paddys Day feel a lot like home and brought a small tear to my eye. They had a Fun Fair at the festival which reminded me alot of the Craggy Island fair in Father Ted (ahh Ted). I'm pretty sure I stood taller then the roller coaster which actually just went around 3 times and no big dipper or loop the loop in it. I was gonna go looking for
the spider baby but decided to go drink instead.
For my whole experience in Sanom, I didn't see one Farang. I was almost like a celebrity of sorts at times. Going to the shops I had heads turning and whispering to each other in Thai with the only audible word I could make out being 'Farang' and them pointing or staring at me. Even just sitting outside Korns home reading a book, anyone passing, whether on foot, bicycle, motorbike whatever, would slow down to look at me. Korn would find it hilarious and her 9 yr old nephew insisted on me bringing him to school some mornings so he could be seen with the Farang. At first it was really awkward but after a while I became some what oblivious to it.
So last night the time to leave this rural setting came and it was kinda sad to go. There was plenty of getting wasted from early in the day, the people where very cool. I tried many delicious dishes, caught a parade and a few Thai concerts during the festival. My first thoughts when I got there were mixed with apprehension, but this didn't last long and in
11am Sangsom
Getting the party started early many ways it was a real eye opener to what we take for granted back home but also I learned a lot about Thais and their community and not the touristy stuff, this was authentic and really enjoyable.
I have a few things I need to start organising over the next few days. I'll make a better effort to keep updating things here also. Hi to everyone back home and I'll talk to yis soon.
Take Care!!!
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Rob
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Howaya
Richie Korn's Dad is St Patrick! amazing dude, gotta love the Sangsom. Sounds like ya had a great time there, the only person from Ballyer in the village and all that. Eating King Cobras and crickets. . . lovely hey if ya get to Cambodia eat one of those eggs with baby chickens in them there very nice. Take it easy Frosty Farang!