The capital was colonized by the french and they have a replica of the Arc DE triumph in France. Baguettes everywhere and lots of french food. We ate at an italian restaurant with some guy name Gino cooking (stereotype much). Excellent change of pace and the thin crust pizza with olives was excellent.
The I got on the local bus to VV it is a tourist town that is about 3 hours from the capital and nestles under some gorgeous mountains along the river. Everyone either goes kayaking or tubing down the river. There are all these bars along the river that you stop by and swing off rope swings or slides.
We went on a 1/2 day kayaking trip down some of the same stretch of the river and down to a sleeping cave that some of the Laos army used as a base back in the day. At night we mixed in with all the other kids from all over the world. mostly from isreal, europe, and austraili. It seemed to be a destination for rock climbers, outdoorspeople, and young people haha. So many interesting stories to be heard.
Last week, I stayed with an Isaan (thai) family for one week in Ban suka. It is about 30 mins away from NOng Khai and i toook the bus to class every morning and back every night.
They live really simply, but still are happy. I got to play with the band tonight in preparation for the rocket festival (kinda like 4th of july). They shoot off rockets to start off the rainy season and have a parade and party too. All the men like to bet on which rocket will stay up the longest.
These rockets were huge and there were not many safety gates or anything.
The family was similar to ours. Mom, Dad's a mechanic, son (17) and daughter (18)
They spoke almost no english and i worked on my thai alot.
We learned traditional dancing to be part of the parade. The parade was so beautiful with all the traditional dress and floats. The only downside was that the temperature was 101 with full sun. I was sweating so much and had to wear all this white make up from 9am till about 5pm.
Wednesday night Some of the students participated in a fashion show with traditional Thai Dress. We were pared up with a thai person and had to walk in front of about 400 people on a giant stage in the village. A beauty pageant was going on at the same time and people were enjoying live music all night.
The campus I am on now is more like a community college. it is nice and there is an english camp for thai going on at the same time so we hang out with them often. they show us all the cool spots in nong khai while we help them practice english.
