Thailand. Visiting relatives in an Isaan village for New Years Eve.

On New Years Day we did a run to Noot’s childhood village near Khong Chiam. We were heading there to wish her grandfather Khun Da a Happy New Year and deliver a few presents.

It’s 140 kilometres to the village with the last 10 kilometres being treacherous as the road looks as though it has been bombed and you crawl along at a snail’s pace swerving here and there trying to not fall into the craters in the road.

The first thing to happen after we arrived was everyone pitches in and helped get the feast ready we had brought along. Noot’s relatives started washing and preparing seafood, vegetables and meat to grill on the small style BBQ’s the call this Korean food.

I had eaten my share and decided to go for a drive. The surprising thing is once you are 2 kilometres past the village the pothole filled road turns into one that is flat and perfect to drive on. It is better than many of the main roads we drove on. I was taking some pictures when Miss Noot turned up in Jack’s car to check on me. There is only way back to the village. It is impossible to get lost as it is the only road you can take. She then joined me for a drive.

Now driving along these Isaan country roads it is very wise to drive at a slow speed as you never know when kids or animals will cross the road. We came up over a rise and then could see this herd of cattle crossing the road.

As we sat watching the cattle cross the road Noot said the guy’s name that owns the cattle and told me to pull over. His name is Wat and we pulled over off the road in case a car came along and surprising one did a little later on.

Wat and his wife Bod were there with the twin daughters. This is their farmhouse and have there real house in the village 8 kilometres away not far from Khun Da’s house. The farm house is set up to stay and have a small bedroom with mosquito netting and cooking equipment.

Wat has 26 head of cattle and there were 4 or 5 small calves. I spoke to him about his cattle and asked about when he sells them (around 4 years of age) and how much he can sell them for, which is usually somewhere between 5,000-7,000 baht for a cow (female) and 7,000 to 12,000 baht for a bull depending on the quality of breed. He is doing very well for himself and has a good size parcel of land that his cattle graze on and also grows rice on the flatter parts which they use through the year.

I love how the small mountains run right along the river here in the village. I have hiked up to this spot and beyond and it is really beautiful up there A 5 hour mountain adventure.


This is the actual view from this spot. The Mekong River here is really full as you can see and the colour is also very dirty. If you look there are no rocks sticking out of the river. This picture was taken on the 16th of October 2007.

Now this is the 31st of December 2007 and here you can see some rocks poking through the surface. They aren’t crocodiles out there.


You can see these rocks are well out of the water now and across the other side of the river is Laos. You see fishermen moving pretty fast in their longboats along the river and must know the river so well so as not to hit submerged rocks.

This is up river and here the river narrows right down to just a small channel. You could walk out and then a small wade across small river and you are into Laos.


I am amazed at the difference that 10 weeks have made to the water levels and how much water has disappeared. I remember this spot as the small hut on the Laos side on the river bank with the mountain in the background.

We had planned to stay the night and celebrate there but as always in Thailand plans change without notice and Noot said lets go home. Fine by me as this meant my own comfortable bed to sleep in. So after staying for a short 5 hours we hit the road and headed back home to Ubon.

So that was part of my exciting New Years Eve day.

Brunty