sticking around

Taking a break from checking out puppies for sale at the central bus station, I must first state that I doubt that I will be able to keep up this daily consistency, but the equivalent of 30 cents I have in my pocket will buy me an hour + on the internet with enough money left over for a public pickup truck or songtaeow to drop me back off from where I came. I arrived in Khon Kaen at 1:30 am last night, just in time for the second half of Argentina's overtime victory over Mexico, after an inexplicably long 10-hour bus-ride that allowed me to escape the flooded streets of Bangkok(apparently, the monsoonal flooding has become a deadly problem in the northwest). Arriving on the street after having spent 2 hours inside, arriving off the Skytrain after eating lunch and typing my previous post, I was greeted by over 2 feet of water on the Bangkok streets, and watched the otherwise speedy motorcyclists walk their bikes through the water, struggling to get their engines to start while the 4-wheeled taxis floated by unharmed. Nervous and scared that plans would be ruined, I realized my best chance of getting to the bus station was by boat, but none was to be seen this far from the river. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze onto the Skytrain, heading to higher ground nearer the bus terminal, where i squeezed into a tuk-tuk(3 wheeled taxi(see the chase that features them in the movie ong bak:muay thai warrior for a better understanding of how cool these automobiles are)) with my 3 bags where I purchased a ticket for the northeast and was hustled onto a bus, unsurprised that i was the only foreigner in sight.

I was told that the trip would take 5-6 hours, but apparently I got onto a 2nd class bus that seemed to stop every 50 feet and made 3 seperate stops of nearly an hour as we inched nearer khon kaen. fortunately, the bus was comfortable and semi-air-conditioned so i was able to nod off for several hours, each extended stop allowing me to refuel with random thai snacks that I couldn't initially identify, and could only tell you now whether they taste good or bad or are just plain odd. considering my experience with the Redbull XO, which is found at nearly every convenience store, there are some native tastes that I don't see myself ever acquiring. in any case, by the time i got to khon kaen, my belt was loosened a few notches.

Khon Kaen seems like it is much cooler than Bangkok, but the smoggy intimacy caused by the motor and foot traffic in Bangkok ratchets up the discomfort factor by at least 10-30 degrees. i like these wide open spaces in a city with a non-existent skyline. Because of my experience on the bus yesterday, I decided to stick with my feet today because I could choose when to stop and when to speed up.

I estimate that I have walked at least 8 miles today, walking to and from Khon Kaen University from my hotel in the morning (which will cost me 5 dollars a night with airconditioning and a tv until i find more permanent living quarters), which was deceptively far, a trip made more hazardous by the discontinuity of the sidewalk along the highway.
After surveying the campus(which is large and very nice-looking), i took a little rest and decided to walk into central khon kaen. I soon realized that the university was quite a ways out of town(i think I walked at least 6km(it tooked me over an hour)), but the walk was manageable because the heat was selectively oppressive(i found shade along 7 percent of the way) as compared to the totalitarian brutality of a stroll through Bangkok (there is no escaping the misery of the outdoors there). In any case, I picked up a little of the Isaan dialect on the way up and realize i have a ways to go before I can productively conversate with the people I want to study, but i know how to make them laugh. Whenever I mention I interest in muay thai, everybody has lit up and sung praises about Somchai Kuamsing, a homegrown champion and national star. this is good news. Perhaps a translator is in order as soon as I figure out how to use my camera.