Pla Pak - Caitlyn's Village

I made it into Nakhon Phanom after an extremely long and awful busride as I mentioned before and got to give Caitlyn a big hug which I am sure many people in her life are pretty jealous of right now! She looked just great and it seems as though Thailand is treating her extraordinarily well. One of Caitlyn's principals and her Thai mom (PiTook) and Thai dad (Khru Kim) met us at the Nakhon Phanom bus station and took us out to lunch (we picked Caitlyn's roommate Steph up from town on the way). It was the first time I really had to eat what was put in front of me and we had breakfast sandwiches with shredded sweet meat and eggs, spicy pork sandwiches, grilled spicy pork, fried eggs and tomatoes and cucumbers. I ate a little of each of it! Once we finished breakfast we toured around the town a bit and got to see the mountains of Laos from the border and we drove past the construction of 'Friendship Bridge #2' between Laos and Thailand. The 3 Thai people from Caitlyn's town with us were incredibly sweet and wanted to make sure we had everything we needed and were in want for nothing, and that is how I experienced my entire time in Pla Pak.

Nakhon Phanom is the bigger city (20,000) of which Caitlyn's town (Pla Pak) is connected. It took about 40 minutes to drive back to Pla Pak and we got dropped off at Caitlyn and Steph's home and I got to see the way they have lived for the last 2 months and will be living for the next 9! It was very simple and took a bit to get used to, but once you get over being barefoot in the bathroom and then in the kitchen and sleeping on either a very hard mattress or the floor, its just wonderful. We got to take out the bicycles and explore Pla Pak and the market nature of Thailand in the small villages. Everyone was staring as we rode through since they are still not even used to seeing one white person everyday let alone 2 together. We even rode over to one of Caitlyn's schools to check that out for a bit (which even she had not done before) and got to meet a few of her students. The weather was hot but not as humid and it was a beautiful day.

We met up with Steph for lunch in Pla Pak and had Mamaa (sp; Thai soup with beef, cabbage, bean sprout, rice noodles, and fish balls). I did my best with it (meaning I ate the veggies, noodles and broth with a couple bites of beef) and we were off. We stopped to get an ice slushy on the way back and then got settled into the house, read and chatted outside for a bit and then had dinner, relaxed and hit the hay since the morning had been so early and I was exhausted after the bus ride.

Day 2

Sundays in Caitlyn's village are very quite. There was almost no one around! The shops were still open since Sunday is not a religious staple in Buddhism so we went and explored all the village markets and what they were selling. It was quite fun! One interesting, and sad, aspect was that all the lotions here have whitening agents in them since whiteness is still seem as the ideal for beauty. Caitlyn says she gets often, as I did on a few occasions, the Thai people telling her how beautiful she is because of her white skin. We were told we looked like babydolls (we both have blue and green eyes so that only adds to the difference). The women ride around on their bicycles with parasols to protect their skin from tan. It is seen as a status symbol because if you are whiter that means you aren't having to work out in the fields or in the sun, indicating wealth.

After exploring town some more we met up with Steph again for lunch and more Mamaa, but this time it was the seafood version and had ramen type noodles inside. Since the lifestyle is just so simple here we are doing a lot of reading and reminiscing and catching up :) There was a lot of commotion towards the end of the day since the community was setting up for a big event for the morning. Because of this, PiYok, Caitlyn's older Thai roommate brought over dinner for us (she will often cook for the girls). We had pork fried rice, corn on the cob, and cucumbers and it was delicious. We also cut up some dragonfruit and enjoyed that alongside the meal. We have been struggling some with the neighborhood dog, Cha Dom, because when he plays he nips and we are not good at stopping him!