Julie and Julia continue their adventure in Thailand!

Isaan, named after the Hindu god of death, is Thailand’s poorest and least tourist visited region. We picked this as our last stop exactly for those reasons: to experience an authentic Thai city and to learn more about it’s regional history. Our first stop was a small city called Pak-Chong. Mind you, we just spent 2 weeks at the islands, and girls will be girls…so we headed to a hair salon, where Julia and Amy got haircuts, and Julie received a moisture treatment.

We spent our one night at Pak-Chong indulging in Thai treats at the local night market. If a city has a night market, we are there! It’s the cheapest and most fun way to sample unusual foods. We’re huge fans of Thai desserts with coconut milk and tarot (a type of potato), brown rice, red beans, or tapioca-like balls.

After filling up at the night market, we headed over to the local video shop, as the store-owner invited us to come back for a movie night. We had the store to ourselves, and the Thai women even pushed together couches and a coffee table for us…very cozy. We watched “Hitch” and snacked on pop-corn. We’ve gone 5 weeks without a “Western” experience, so we felt no guilt.

Now that we’ve had our dose of pampering, we were ready to get rugged once again. We were ready for a 2 day Safari-Trek at Khao Yai National Park. The next morning, we moved to The Garden Lodge next to Khao Yai and settled in. We spent the day with a small group and our Thai guide learning about the region and exploring a wat overlooking the village. The northeast has a strong Hindu influence, and we were introduced to the first Hindu relic inside a cave. Called the “Linga” the penis is the sign of the main Hindu god, Shiva. The ancient Thai (at the time called Khmer) kings adopted the “Linga” as a sign of their power coming directly from god.

At sunset, we headed over to watch 2 million bats fly out from their cave for the night. At first, there are a few lonely bats in the sky, but within minutes a never-ending snake-like path of bats filled sky.

The next day we headed into the heart of Khao Yai in attempt to spot more wild-life. Our guide must have some kind of 6th sense, as he would suddenly stop the car, run out with his telescope and show us a bird of prey, or an iguana in a tree. We spent the afternoon on a hike down to a waterfall, and then walking, or tripping and hopping, from rock to rock along it’s path. We saw monkeys in the forest and swinging from the trees.

Our final thoughts on Thailand:

• Thai toilets in the ground are simply more ‘ergonomical’.
• Thai Red Bull contains amphetamines. Really.
• Pharmacies - you can get anything from Viagara to Valium just by dropping by. No Rx needed.
• Thais don’t have words for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Every meal is called ‘gin kow’ - eat rice!
• ‘Same same, but different’ just sounds so much better than ’similar, but not quite’.
• Tuk-tuks and sawngtaews are the way to travel. Forget taxis!
• Dogs. They’re everywhere and are so human-like! We’ve bonded with many of them.
• Fakes are everywhere- Thailand is ‘Dieseled out’.
• Thai massages- combination of Yoga, physical therapy and massage, we couldn’t get enough!
• Every structure must have a spirit house whether it be a parking garage, gas station or a hair salon.
• Though the human is a cockroaches number one predator, our experience proves otherwise. We’ve been attacked.