Phetchabun at Night

When going to Isaan, I have no problem with the poverty. I'm not offended by all the dirt and dustiness. I don't even notice the boredom. I can even get by just fine with the food I'm served.

Where I do have a problem is in sitting. Pui's family owns no chairs. They own a DVD player and karaoke machine, with speakers the size of small refrigerators, but no chairs. With only the cement floor to sit on, I'm really uncomfortable after 5 or 10 minutes. Obviously Thai people of all ages and physical conditions get along fine without chairs.

Also, I like my showers with warm water. Call me uptight, but a bucket of cold water is just not a substitute for a nice warm jet of water. For this reason, Pui and I would be staying back in Phetchabun for the night at a hotel. (Well, truth be told, a hotel room actually is a mental break from the family farm... even though it really doesn't bother me.)

It started raining early in the evening, although by the time we left, it was a misty drizzle. We had Pui's motor scooter to ride... a fairly new Honda Wave.

What a hellacious ride, going from Pui's parent's house out in the country back in towards civilization at 8:00 at night with a light rain on a completely pitch black road with potholes scattered about 1 or 2 per mile. The first 10 kilometers were hell, but at least the last 10 kilometers had street lights and the rain let up quite a bit.

We found a really cheap quality motel (for directions, it's down past the hospital and turn left, or from the other direction, it's the soi immediately to the right of the "Country House Bar". Rooms are 300 baht ($8) per night and the staff was exceptionally nice, even washing Pui's motorcycle for us while we showered and got ready for a night on the town.

So we cleaned up and headed out.

Our first stop was the Country House Bar, which was a little too empty and a little too much like karoake for me, so we left. Next stop was the Hotel Burapha's disco, which was empty, so we left. I kind of had it in mind to find if there was a place where local expatriates hung out. (Pui had pointed out the houses of 3 different expatriates on the road to her house, so there are some in the area.) I rode around and spotted another farang walking with his Thai girlfriend at the night market, and asked him if he knew where "we" hung out, but he was at least as new to town as I was and couldn't offer any advice.

I finally found an internet café and did a web search for "Phetchabun" and "Nightlife" and that directed me back to Mr. Pothole's Phetchabun travel log on Stickman's site, which I had taken the time to read before leaving Pattaya. He had mentioned the T Bar, so we got directions from the guy at the internet café (who, coincidentally was the fattest Thai person I had ever seen, coming in at well over 400 pounds), and went there to hang out.

The T Bar is more of a restaurant than a bar, and is located right on the little (very long and narrow) lake in town, and the bar itself, the myriad other bars nearby, and the lake and neighborhood were just a perfect nighttime ambiance. Cool, clear weather. Not loud, even though there were lots of venues around. Lots of families and couples. All very upscale.

The waiter was actually a friend of Pui's from her village, and he suggested a chicken dish for us to try. It was really amazing: Chicken bits in a hearty vegetable-filled cherry sauce. I would call it chicken cherry stew.

From there, we went straight home to bed.