We stayed in Nong Khai for 2 weeks and it was so nice to be staying in one place for a reasonable period of time again! It gets tiring packing and unpacking your back pack, reading a new town map, finding accommodation, sitting on buses or planes etc when you are moving every two or three days!! Of course it means you get to see lots of places and it’s the only to way to see the amount of things we have seen but the few wee breaks in between have been nice!!
First on the list of things to do was the marathon!! Tom was running a half marathon and I was running the 10km. The registration money for the run was in aid of building a new school for disabled children in Nong Khai and it was the first time the town had organised such a big race. We were 2 of only a handful of foreigners so everyone was staring at us and anyone who had any bit of English came over to chat. People were so friendly and helpful. Toms run started at 5.00am and mine started at 6.00am so it was a very early start but at least it was not as hot as it would be at midday!! Tom ran his half marathon in 1.59.31 and I ran my 10.5km in 1.14.07 :o)
After the marathon it was off to the hospital for Tom to sort out his fractured finger and off to school for me to teach english to cute little Thai kids :o) As Tom put his feet up in our lovely hotel garden (www.mutmee.com) and rested his finger, which was now nicely wrapped up in a cast, I went to work for a charity called Isara (www.isara.org). It is a small charity that offers local kids the opportunity to come to their learning centre after school and learn english for free in a fun and non-threatening way aswell as going to local schools to help their english teachers with their lessons. The level of English in Thailand is pretty basic as the national curriculum focuses on just learning the language required for their exams (pretty much like learning French at home!!) and so when the kids come to Isara its all about learning to read and hold conversations. Whilst I was there I visited two local Thai schools aswell as teaching and writting a curriculum for the learning centre. The kids are amazing...they get so excited when they see the volunteers arriving and are more than willing to pose for the camera as you can see below!!!
On our last weekend in Nong Khai there was the annual rocket festival when local villages compete to make and launch a rocket to the highest height possible. We thought it would be a cool thing to go and see but we totally did not imagine that the rockets would be so big, loud and travel so far!! After getting lost quite a few times, and Tom coping with my wild driving on the moped, we arrived in a field just outside the town were the rockets were going to be launched. We saw a big crowd gathering around a big wooden structure so went up for nosy!! I nearly had a heart attack when the rocket launched...it was like a bomb had exploded beside us and there was smoke everywhere!! Health and safety is clearly not a high priority in Thailand!! So we took a few steps back, (to a beer tent!!) amongst the betters who were putting money on which rocket would go highest, to watch the rest of the launches. It was a fantastic day to end on in Nong Khai :o)
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