In The Sticks, Surin Province

The phone woke me up at 4:30am.

"Yes?" I murmured.

"Your taxi is here," the man at reception said.

"What?" I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock. "No," I said with a sigh. "There's been a mistake. I'm leaving at 4:30 PM."

"...oh."

*beep, beep*

Brilliant, I thought. I've been in Thailand for just over a day and already I'm having communication issues.

It's hard to criticise the hotel reception though - I should've double-checked the time when I'd booked the taxi the day before and made sure they had it right. And they were very apologetic about it later on.

The taxi driver wasn't impressed. He picked me up at 4:30 that afternoon with a coke in his hand and a strained look on his face, and explained how he'd woken up early just to pick me up, only to be turned away. He looked absolutely buggered (hence the caffeine) and we tore down the highway towards the airport at a dizzying, sugar-rush-induced speed. More than once the speedo needle touched 140 km/h.

But this is Thailand. We were only going slightly faster than everyone else.


Before I'd even left the airport at Ubon Ratchathani I'd made two friends. One was a lady who had been living in New Zealand for twelve years, the other a 19-year-old student who invited me to visit his village the following day. I was hesitant about delaying my job search, even a day, but figured what the hell. So the next morning we caught the train to Sikhoraphum, Surin Province.


It took a bit over two hours on the slow country train, and I witnessed some of the much-publicised flooding that has claimed entire fields, farms and homes. A long tuk-tuk ride later and we were in his village, far from civilisation. We spent the day dropping in on his friends and walking around the village. It fascinates me how in these kind of rural places, people don't need invites into a friend's home - they just walk in and sit down and everyone chats like normal.


I stayed in the village overnight and caught the train back to Ubon Ratchathani the next morning. The train was due to leave at 6:10am. I hauled my cases onto the train, sat down, and thought - for good measure - I'd check with the lady sitting across from me that I was on the right train.

"Ubon Ratchathani?" I ask.

"Ubon?!" she cries, and bursts into a stream of rapid Thai, pointing at the other train that's come into the station - the one that's already pulling away. Great. It's six hours till the next train.

All the passengers in the carriage suddenly become very animated, waving at the other train. So I grab my bags, thunder down the stairs onto the platform, and hurry after it. The train stops, the conductors let me on, and a grin breaks over my face.

Thailand is awesome.