Khon Kaen and a glimpse into village life.

When I first got to Khon Kaen I never expected myself to love this place this much. It's a dusty box of a town, with Khon Kaen Uni taking up most of it. Its almost like a less developed area of Malaysia. But of course, as with the cliched saying, I love that place because of the people and our hosts (Public Health Faculty International Club students) were realllyyy friendly. Its been a long time since I have met people who so genuinely friendly and glad to have us. Even though communication was quite a problem (as stef described, getting a pt across to them is like leading a whole day of cheer). Thai food rocked, though there was alot of pork in them (and if you know me, you would know i generally dont like red meat). But dishes like papaya salad, mango sticky rice, thai desserts consisting of red ruby and cute fat chendol worms, pad thai, thai green curry, saku, cha yan (thai iced tea) blah blah. The list goes on forever.

Visiting the village was amazing, and it made me want to be a farmer :P Having been a city kid for so long, its nice to know of such an alternative lifestyle. Though I dont think I can survive staying there forever but now I'm really looking forward to going down there, and staying with these people and getting to know them and their culture better. If only UCL offered thai as a language which I can take as SSC. And im crossing my fingers and hoping that this project would take off as a sustainable project. Although Im sick of stef, Im glad she is my partner 'cos I dont think She's like a partner and mentor in one. I really do understand why she managed to get the award.

Here's a little glimpse into their village life and what I did in Khon Kaen.
Basically it was a recce trip for Project Khon Kaen 08. We visited villages, the local Primary Care Unit (PCU) and for R&R, we had Tor, who was a friend of stef's thai friend, who brought us around. We went for thai karaoke (and me and stef sang disney songs in there), cycled around a lake in KK city, visited temple, tried loads of thai food, and bought back Pork Floss which apparently originated from Khon Kaen.

Bikes were the most common form of transport in KK. Even within the KK Uni.

Refuelling with gas from a bottle. How primitive and cute.

Here comes the cowherd. I didnt know there are still people who did this now!

Farming! Its the planting season now :)

Padi fields were so gorgeous!

My thai host, Lake, playing with a stray dog. In thailand, the number of stray dogs beats the number of stray cats in Singapore hands down. And they come in all shapes and sizes and breeds and gender. From Poodles to German Shepherds to fluffy ones like this.

The KKU Night bazaar. Which had LOADS of good food. The Tom Yum Taley (Seafood Tom Yum) here was out of this world. 11 thumbs up.

Stef and Saku. Which is abit like soon-kueh shaped snacks made of sago skin with peanut and garlic stuff inside. REAL GOOD.

Stef and Rice Crackers.

Jaime, Me, Rung and Stef posing with a dino bin.

Tor, Jaime, Me, Rung, Stef.

Typical Eatery in KKU. We totally hecked about hygiene during that trip and miraculously didny get diarrhoea or food poisoning.

Thai food. With pork done in different ways.

One of the more majestic temples in KK. Though not as stunning as those build by the royal family in BKK, it was still beautiful .

Bells put up by worshippers for good luck.

Buddhists believe that the 5-headed snake protected the Buddha during his meditation when the Satan sent the floods. Hence these snakes are seen in most temples.

A view of the lake which we cycled around from the temple.

Rung and I.

KKU Hospital. Opened by one of the princesses. Basically in thailand, most hospitals and temples are built by the royal family. And the King's picture is really everywhere.