Trip to Selaphum
Fortunately, Charly's life is full of pleasant surprises (unfortunately sometimes also less pleasant ones). Until a few years ago, he would never have dared to predict that he would spend the rest of his life in Thailand. However, he has now been living in Thailand for a while and in recent years close to Udonthani.
A Dutch friend of ours lives with his Thai wife in a village near Selaphum. Selaphum is located in the Isan countryside, between Roi Et and Yasothon, not too far from Mukdahan and the border with Laos. For most residents, poverty is a real asset. Dependent as they are on rice cultivation, contracting road construction and building houses, and on the various lotteries.
Rice is always available, but other food and drinks are often bought on credit at the local grocer. They lend money to each other, with the repayment to their fellow sufferers always taking place, because otherwise they will be spit out in the village community and will never be able to go anywhere for money again. That system is self-sustaining. In this environment, no one is surprised when a household's car or TV is taken back by the bank because they have not met their payment obligations. Some houses are really shabby, but there are also quite good, large houses. Only the furnishing, as we know it, is often missing. At most a TV and a few thin mattresses to sleep on. The rest of the houses are empty. Nothing on the walls. No closets, storage spaces. No beds.
A bit sad environment for those Isaaners you would think. Nothing is less true. They resign themselves to their situation, don't worry about it at all (anymore), and wait resignedly for the things to come. There are often celebrations, usually around a temple, and paid from government funds.
At the somewhat larger parties with a stage, where young girls sell their dancing skills and help the party get going with their dancing. But where, as alcohol consumption increases, the local ladies also appear on stage to admire their singing and dancing talents. As a down-to-earth Dutchman, it strikes me every time that Thai people have no gene for that at all. Such a party usually starts early in the day. After a while, usually after about five or six hours, most of the visitors have suddenly “disappeared”, completely fed up with all the booze.
If there are no parties for a while, the local temple will stir. Because no parties means no income for the temple either. So the temple “organizes” another party. Everyone happy, the temple residents and the villagers. What else do you want? Yes, winning the lottery, of course. So there is again heavy betting on another lotto (illegal / legal, Laos, Thai lotto, it doesn't matter), on credit of course, because it is assumed that this time the main prize will be won.
Twice a year Toey and I go there, to visit my friend and his wife and also to see our friends in the village again. Because after having been there a few times, we got to know a number of Isaaners in the village with whom we get along well. Those people are of course also happy that they can drink, eat, dance and sing for free again for a few days. We wholeheartedly wish them that. Just very cozy.
iPhoto-Thailand / Shutterstock.comThe more or less fixed pattern is that Toey and I take the bus from Udon (Central Plaza) to Roi Et. The bus journey takes almost five hours, with stops in Khon Kaen and Mahasarakham. Plus a few short stops related to ticket control and boarding and disembarking passengers at places designated by them. The students in Khon Kaen and Saramarakham in particular like to make use of this. Especially on the Khon Kaen – Mahasarakham route, the bus is crowded with passengers standing / hanging close together in the aisle. Khon Kaen and Mahasarakham are both student cities, hence.
It is an hour faster by car because there are no stops and ticket checks and reaching the bus station in Khon Kaen and Mahasarakham for the bus naturally takes a lot of time. For car trips I assume an average of 70 kilometers per hour. From Udon to Selaphum is about 280 kilometers.
In Roi Et my friend and his wife are waiting for us at the bus station. Then we go to Rong Beer in Roi Et to sit comfortably on the very large terrace. To tell each other the latest news and to eat and drink. In the course of the evening there is often live music. A couple that has become very close friends and their daughter usually joins us there.
Excellent food, some drinks and the live music are excellent ingredients to ensure that the evening is extremely pleasant and time flies by.
This Thai couple has their affairs well organized. They have excavators, trucks, tractors, cement mills, you name it and receive orders from the government for a number of villages in the surrounding area. This often involves excavations, road construction, renovations of government buildings, etc. They do very good business here and are an exception to the rule here in north-east Isaan. Through their assignments they can also keep a number of Isaaners at work.
After eating/drinking in Rong Beer in Roi Et, we are driven to our hotel in Selaphum, which is aware of our late arrival. This hotel in Selaphum, the Chic 101 hotel, is on your right as you are on the road from Roi Et to Yasothon. It is quite new and has excellent rooms (900 baht per night for a room on the ground floor and 700 baht for the rooms on the upper floors). The rooms on the ground floor have a terrace at the front. From there you can enter the swimming pool. The hotel also has a restaurant at the front, plenty of parking spaces and a great swimming pool with slides for the kids (and adults, hahahaha). The swimming pool is also accessible to non-hotel guests. Entrance fee is 50 baht. There is also a shop where the Thai can rent/buy swimsuits. Most Thai don't have swimsuits. The pool is used a lot on weekends.
The next day, Toey, my friend and his wife and I go shopping. We do some shopping at the Big-C for the BBQ that we have that night at my friend's house and offer it to some friends. Selaphum is only a small town, but they also have a Big-C there, where not really, and a wholesaler for liquor. After shopping quickly to my friend's house. At the local grocer we get a number of bags with ice cubes. The bags of ice are emptied into a number of large cool boxes and the drinks are placed in them for cooling.
The ladies then clean the fish and meat and wash the vegetables. Time for my friend and I to grab our first beer, set up the tables, chairs, fans, umbrellas and barbecues. The first guests will arrive by then. Good time to turn on the music too.
The first drinks with some simple nuts and chips are often started at 14.00 – 15.00 pm. A few hours later the barbecues are on. There are two large barbecues ready to grill fish, meat, chicken and sausage. Those barbecues are very skillfully set on fire by some handy villagers, after which the fish, meat, chicken and sausage can be grilled.
At 16.00 p.m. there is usually still quite a bit of sun. But luckily there are large trees there that block the sun a bit. In combination with a number of ventilators it is just bearable for me. It really gets too hot, then I get in the car, turn on the engine and the air conditioning on a dangerous setting, and after ten minutes I'm completely the man again.
The guests enjoy the BBQ and do it the Thai way. So every time a little fish and / or meat with lots of vegetables and some sticky rice. And that goes on for hours. Interspersed with dancing and kara-okay singing, chatting and a drink of course. It is always very pleasant and in my poor coal Thai I can talk a bit with the guests present. Usually about 15 – 20 friends come to that BBQ. Always a unique, cozy atmosphere. Never a discord.
After a while, from about 22.00 p.m., you see the first guests go down. Go to sleep in their car or drive home on their motorbike. Around 23.00:101 Toey and I call it a day and drive back to the ChicXNUMX hotel. Have a nightcap in the restaurant and then go to sleep.
Day 3 is usually a normal relaxing day, without special things. We use the swimming pool. My friend and his wife come by again, sometimes accompanied by some pleasant villagers. We then spontaneously have a party on the large outdoor terrace of the hotel. Typical Isaan dishes are served. Not exactly food my boyfriend and I look forward to. But the restaurant also has western food, albeit to a limited extent, so we can figure it out. Of course there is no lack of beer and whiskey and the Isaaners have another great day. And of course there has to be singing at some point. The hotel has a kara-oke installation, so that is gratefully used. In connection with the peace for the hotel guests present, this ends at 23.00:XNUMX.
Usually day 4 is the departure day. Likewise the last time. Driven to the bus station in Roi Et by my friend. It turned out that we had to wait more than an hour for the next express bus to Udon. A bit of a setback. In the end, the express bus also left twenty minutes late. When we arrived at the bus station in Khon Kaen, it turned out what had caused the twenty-minute delay. The bus was broken, it could still be driven, but in fact that was irresponsible. We were kindly requested to transfer to another bus, which continued the journey to Udon. Based on this experience, plus the fact that Toey now has three years of driving experience, we decided to do our trips to Selaphum by car in the future.
Submitted by Charlie
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Great Charly to experience such a wonderful 'mini-holiday' in your new country of residence. You aptly depict the poverty, state of affairs and resignation of the majority of the local population. As far as I can judge, also from your previous stories, you have a big heart (or 'chai dee' in Thai) and because you can afford it you are happy to let others share in the revelry. That gives great satisfaction, in the past I also had the opportunity to celebrate close Thai family and acquaintances. Your story makes me think back fondly. Wish you a lot of fun and an hour or so late with a bus doesn't really matter. Shock Dee!
Your village festivals are familiar to me, there may have been. can still add that the noise level is very loud. I myself am just outside Roi Et, I also regularly drive to Khon Kaen. Maybe it's an idea, next time try to drive via Kalasin, not via Mahasarakam. Large stretches of new roads and I think much shorter.
Thanks for the tip Peter. I will definitely do it next time, drive via Kalasin.