IN NAKHON PHANOM, THAILAND

We are now in Nakhon Phanom in the northeast corner of Thailand. This town is on the Mekong river with a view across the river to Lao. 

Every so often along the river the town has placed exercise equipment which is used in the evenings.

This is a wonderful town for bicycling. We have seen more bicycles here than in any other city in Thailand. Laura is busy filling her SD card with bicycle photos. The town is flat and along the Mekong River so it’s perfect for bicycling. Here's a photo of a lady and her bicycle with her child in the front carrier, a basket for goods, and a seat on the rear fender for another person.

On our first night here we ate at The Little Tokyo restaurant which is near the hotel, and which has wonderful Japanese food. We also met Lew Brown, who is an American from Grand Rapids, Michigan, living here with his Thai wife. 

Through him we met a fifth grade Thai schoolteacher, and her sisters. We went on a two hour walk with her one night, to the Tuesday used clothing market. Here's a photo of both of them with Jim.

Through Lew we also met the owner of the L A Bicycle shop. When Laura started photographing his bicycles, he said that he had one for Laura to photograph. So, the next day he brought this classic antique Raleigh bicycle from his home so Laura could photograph his pride and joy.

Jim had a red Raleigh bicycle similar to this one when he was a kid, but it was not as fancy as this one.

The hotel we stayed at provided breakfast, which rotated between omelet and noodle soup. One day it served omelets, then the next day noodle soup. We thought we were eating a Thai type of omelet, but found out later that the type of omelet were eating was Vietnamese. At the hotel we met Sam, from the Italian part of Switzerland, and his girlfriend.

Here is what the well dressed Thai dog wears. 

Here's a photo of some yard art which would look nice at home. We have seen the elephants up to life size.

We walked a short way along the rive to Wat St. Ann, which is the very modern Catholic church in town.

The big annual event here is the annual boat festival where they build rafts up to four stories tall and float them down the Mekong River. They light them with drinks cans filled with kerosene. We regret that we missed the festival. Here is a photo of a model of one of the smaller floats.

On our last night, Lew invited us to his house to meet his wife and her children. This is both their second marriage. The wife’s first husband died of cancer, leaving her some property. So, we went to their home where they have built a cabana type of hotel, which was extremely nice, and well done. The property is next door to one of her sister’s house, and her parent’s house, while another sister lives about 100 yards away, across the road. Here is a photo of Lew's wife and daughter.

We were in the market and saw this truck full of bagged fertilizer arrive in town and wondered what would happen in the U.S. if a full fertilizer truck pulled up with men wearing ski masks?