Thailand. Waterfall Soi Sawan Isaan Country. Part 1.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being a bachelor for 2 days and one night. My lovely other half and some of her girlfriends from university went Noot’s friend Annie’s village. It isn’t too far from Noot’s village where she lived as a small baby.

She was off early Saturday morning and like all Thai people was running late as she had to look a million dollars to go on the few hour bus ride. Why do all Thai girls have to be so pedantic about how they look? Even if we are going to a restaurant that is just a local nothing flash place it still requires the hair to be straightened using the heat wand for 30 minutes and then try on 2 pairs of jeans and 3 different tops and endless amounts of checking in full length mirrors.

Noot was meant to be at the bus station at 7:30am to meet her friends and at that exact time but we were still inside our house as Noot was just making sure all looked great. She rang her friends and they said the bus was getting ready to leave but luckily we are only 800 metres from the bus station. SO as Noot chatted on the phone I rode the motorbike and went to the main road where the bus drives along ad Noot waited a few minutes and then waved the bus down to pick her up and she was off with her friends for a fun filled 2 days.

On the bus and away.

This is the unruly gang of misfits.

Of course Noot was feeling left out of the pictures and had to rectify this by taking a her own pivture at close range. Luckily she isn't too bad on the eye or could have been scary.

They were going to spend some time at a really lovely waterfall called Soi Sawan which translates into “necklace” It is a big waterfall cascading from two sides of steep cliffs about 20 meters high. It resembles a necklace. The water is plentiful all year round. The area is surrounded with trees and various kinds of flowers.

To get there you can go on Highway 2112, and is 30 kilometers from Khong Chiam District or around 2 hours from Ubon Ratchathani. I have been there once and it was in the dry season and it was very pretty and refreshing swimming in some of the very deep pools. There are little waterfalls here and there and you can sit under these and let refreshing cool water run over you but I would only do this if there isn’t people above you as there are many young Thai people who frequent the waterfall and the drink and get very drunk and then jump from the steep sides into the rock pools and more than likely relieve themselves in the water as well.

This is one of the less than attractive things that happen, seeing young Thais skylarking and being dickheads and saying stuff to every group of girls that walks by and they all think they are shit hot to trot. You can get away from these idiots but there are plenty of them about.

There are many beautiful views out over tree lined valleys, lots of different types of flowers and also plenty of picture opportunities. It is a nice place to spend a half or full day with friends eating and having a few drinks if that’s what you like to do.

Noot and friends had a great time swimming and eating and eating and swimming. They had a few funny moments when people fell over on the slippery rocks and when Noot was videoing the girls and she started to complain in a girly scream that something was biting her between her toes while she was standing in ankle deep water but the girls couldn’t find anything.

Posing.

The walk into the waterfall is a little steep but not too bad if you go slow.

Oh and then super fit Noot who usually walks from the fridge to the living room to the fridge again went down with a cramp in her calf. She wailed in pain and her friends came to the rescue and massaged and bent her toes back.

The thing that amazes me with Noot is the amount of food she can consume but her weight never fluctuates more than 2 kilos each way. When I first met Noot 2 years ago she was 42 kilograms and is now is 47 kilograms. She never gets to 48 kilograms no matter how much she eats I don’t understand how this happens as for the food she takes in she should be around 80 kilograms as she doesn’t exercise a lot. Once in a blue moon she comes to the park to do aerobics but I think that is just to check up on me and that I haven’t got any lady friends chasing me around. Just joking she’s just lazy and does have a fair bit of homework to do now.

One bad thing here in Thailand is that Thai people especially younger and people from the village don’t use rubbish bins or simply take rubbish away with them. So many places I have been and seen kids just throwing stuff anywhere and everywhere without a care in the world. And one of the bad things usually their parents are doing the same or just laughing and don’t seem to care. In a lot of the villages I have been to there is rubbish laying everywhere and you watch little kids unwrap whatever they have just bought and drop the wrapping on the ground and off they go.

So after they spent 5 or so hours at the waterfall they went to a friends village very close by to stay the night and 5 girls crammed into a small bedroom and as you can imagine not a lot of sleep was had as they talked and talked as Not told me because she really likes to sleep, Oh again, really likes to sleep. She complained that one friend Miss Annie who is a lovely girl talked non stop as she wasn’t tired so just kept on talking and the last time Noot checked the time it was 3am before she closed her eyes for the night.

Now I was on my own. I was king of the castle and had the run of the house to myself so I really lived it up. I worked all Saturday morning teaching and for my lunch hour I for some stupid reason went to my favourite somtam or papaya salad shop and bought papaya salad and sticky rice and some processed pork roll. There must be something wrong with me. I mean I could of gone and got KFC but I really don’t like it much at all and here in Ubon farang takeaway foods are very limited. The pizzas are disgusting and I have only ever tried a pizza once the whole time I have been here. I wish we had a Subway here; I would be a regular there. I really like Subway. On Saturday night I stayed in and read some newspapers online and some blogs. So that was my big Saturday night being a bachelor.

On Sunday I got up early and cleaned the house. First 3 of the 5 fish tanks were cleaned. So that was around an hour, then I started to do 4 loads of washing and while that was happening I swept and mopped the floors. The bathroom got a scrub from top to toe and I cleaned the windows. So my morning off that I usually spend playing 9 or 18 holes of golf I spent doing household chores. I usually do these except for the washing as Noot takes care of this and I don’t like doing the washing even though it’s easy by just having to throw the clothes into the machine.

So that was my fantastic weekend of being a bachelor and boy did I live it up. Next time she goes away I am not sure how I am going top this weekend it will be really hard. I have many pictures of the waterfall and Noot’s trip and will post them in 3 parts I think as I have about 30 out of the 100 odd pictures she took that I want to post.

I hope you enjoy them.

Brunty