Guided Tours Day 1

At the beginning of October, we had a visitor from the Isaan region. Kru Ray's son came to stay with us for two weeks to help improve his English and to give him a western experience. He started off the week sick and needed a trip to the hospital, but he bounced back easily.

His parents came to pick him up. We were supposed to have Adam's Isaan family as well, but Kru Ing had to stay at her school because someone important was coming for a visit. Kru Ray's family arrived early and set about making breakfast.

It's really convenient when everyone can congregate outside and cook. We had grilled Isaan sausage, green banana som tam, and sticky rice. To make som tam with green bananas you need a specific variety of bananas which come from Isaan. They brought us some so that I could finally try it. It's a really funny sensation when you eat the bananas; they use the word astringent for this flavor. It causes you to cough when you eat it which means it's good! It's kind of like drinking a really good ginger ale (Vernor's).

Poor Mr. Niyom. I think he's a bit disappointed when he eats with us. When they were cooking outside, Pawn boiled the fermented fish before adding it to the salad. I didn't think much about it because our Isaan friend who lives across the street says she does the same thing, but when we ate supper that night, Mr. Niyom made sure to order his papaya salad with uncooked fermented fish. :)

After traveling so far the day before (about 11 hours by car), they didn't want to go very far to tour. So we took them to one of our favorite spots about 50 kilometers from our house. A lot of people call these sticky falls because it's a waterfall you can climb.

After leaving the waterfall we went for a short drive to a reservoir. It's a really pretty area and looks nice for a day trip.

We finished the evening letting everyone choose some dinner at the local market. We had already eaten once, but it was time for second supper. It was finally time to get home and get some rest for the next day.