3 day trip to Mukdahan was not as expected

Friday morning my apartment was up for renewal, instead of signing another contract I decided to get out of Bangkok for a while. I didn’t know where I was to go nor how long for.

The missus had managed to get 3 days of work at the same time so I asked where she would like to go. In the back of my mind I was thinking Hua Hin or Krabi, yeah, somewhere that had a beach with great seafood and cocktails. Her response was to visit her home province to see her family. Knowing she hasn’t seen her family in 4 years, I felt bad to try and convince her otherwise. Also, knowing that her parents live in my favorite part of Thailand, Eaarn, I easily forgot about the seafood and started looking forward to eating laap and sticky rice.

9 hours after we left Bangkok we arrived at her province, Mukdahan, which is on the Thai/Laos boarder. My missus couldn’t remember where her house was, so it took a further hour to find the soi where her house was located. We finally pulled into the drive way and said our hello’s to her mum and auntie before heading to the local hotel.

The next day we were busy meeting all the relatives along with a trip to the local market. Walking around the market I started to realise that people here are no where near as friendly as the locals in Nong Beau Lamp Pu, another province in the Essarn region where I have spent a lot of my time over the last 2 years. I guess I was expecting the same warmth, friendliness and smiley local people that I have encountered in other parts of Essarn. It was a shame.

During the evening the missus family organized dinner with many local villagers, which included a traditional ceremony for myself and my missus. This includes everyone tying white string around our wrists while thinking about good things to come in our lives. I’ve had this done before so it was pretty boring doing it the second time, although the missus seemed to like it as it was her first time. I now have around 30 pieces of white string around my right wrist I must wear for 3 days for good luck.

Yesterday I drove back to Bangkok which took 11 hours, due to Bangkok’s worst traffic day of the week, Fridays!

To sumerise the trip: I had no time to relax, I drove far to much over the three days and the people I met, including the missus family, were not that nice. I’m now back to square one craving for the beach!