November 11, 2007 Knon Khai (Thailand)

At 7:30, I got up and went down to meet a French guy, who I had seen at the station. He turned up late and ordered a cup of coffee before getting into a tuktuk. When he was drinking coffee, a tuktuk driver went into this restaurant and sat on a table. I thought he was waiting for us to leave by his tuktuk. He must be a good business man. Finally, The French guy paid tuktuk for 50B to the station and let me join him.

Then we bought train tickets to Nong Khai for 35B, which was 15B cheaper than tuktuk. At the platform, we saw an Italian man who looked like 40 years old. These two guys talked to each other in French, so I couldn not understand what is going on. After 3 hours, we got in Nong Khai and they said, “See you in Vientiane,” and then, I became alone. They were going to stay at this small city for two nights.

I took tuktuk to the bus terminal at the city centre. The driver was a woman with a young daughter looking like 10. When I got to the bus terminal, I had lunch for 25B in a local restaurant which had lovely atmosphere. Although there was no air conditioner instead of a very small fan and no clean tables, it made relaxing space and time. It might be one of things Japan has left behind.