Famous in Ubon

Hello from Khon Kaen! We are currently in northeastern Thailand, making our way....north? east? south? We are really not sure. Kiley and I are together we have a ticket on Air Asia from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok on July 9th. It was part of an earlier travel plan that hasn't quite played out. So now we are trying to find out about changing/cancelling flights with Air Asia, which is just not easy with our limited and usually very slow internet connections. Today we will head either east to Mukdahan and cross into Laos and then onto Vietnam, or north to Nong Khai and into Laos to Ventiane, up to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, and then east to Vietnam, Hanoi in particular.

A valuable lesson we are learning is that planning planning planning is key! Before I do another trip like this I will definately spend more time planning a more exact route rather than one so general. Also, we will definately research visa's better! If our time frame was much longer, we would be doing great, but because it is short, we are losing a lot of valuable time in trying to arrange plans and visa's. However, I keep reminding myself that I am still in Thailand and it is still wonderful to be here. Everything we do is a challenge and never works out quite right, but that is the adventure of it. So long as we remain optimistic, positive, and keep our hearts cool (as Thai's encourage) we will be just fine, or better!

So you may be wondering who is famous in Ubon, and that would be me. On the day we were to leave, Friday, we headed off on a #8 saungthaw that would take us to Ba Na Muang Wat according to the city map I had. It was quite full and everyone was asking us where we were going. After about 10 minutes of the Thai's talking back and forth and us saying "Mai kau jai" (I don't understand) a lot, it was determined that we were heading in the wrong direction! They had us stay on until we passed a #8 going in the other direction, they shouted for him to stop and we jumped off and ran after our new #8 and boarded. In moments I felt I was missing something and after some frantic searching, realized that my wallet was no longer with me. We pushed the buzzer, jumped off and headed swiftly back in the direction we'd come from. I assumed I had dropped it or it fell out of an upzipped pocket in the saungthaw switch. We walked very far up the road and my wallet was not to bed found. I sat down on a corner and did a thorough check through all of my bags and pockets and then was overwhelmed by the planned trip ahead of us and the prospect of having no money, no way to get money, not even knowing our plan yet, and of course the general stress of negotiating your way through a foreign country where you do not speak the language but "nidnoy" (a little). I started to cry there on that corner and within moments local people were gathering, asking where I was going, "Where you go?" and I attempted to explain that the problem was not that I was lost but that I had lost my wallet. They understood the word "money" and with some skilled acting, I was able to convey the message. Suddenly several people were scanning the street for my wallet, or at least some money, depending on whether they understood me. One man spoke better english and got the whole story from me and brought me over to a food stand where they gave Kiley and I free roasted bananas while he called the Tourist Police. Thai people do not like to see someone in distress. They do not show these strong negative emotions. If you happen to get into a situation where you show them, you'll hear "Ja yen yen" a lot, which directly translates to "cool cool heart". You want a cold slow heart, not a hot fast heart.

Soon, the Tourist Police arrived, who are my new personal heroes. Two middle aged men stepped out in their tight fitting uniforms, of course, its the norm here for police men. They gathered us up in their air conditioned car after speaking to the nice man who had helped us, and off we went. Kiley and I weren't really sure where we were going, but it seemed like they knew what they were doing. It turns out, we were chasing our saungthaw. Apparently there are MANY #8s though, and we had no idea what one we were on. We began following the route, with the tourist police stopping every #8 to ask them....questions?? I really have no idea how they deduced which saungthaw we had been on, but maybe the fact that we were about the only 2 "farang" in the city of Ubon at the time helped. After about 30 minutes of driving around, they had determined that we were in Saungthaw #32. We drove to what seemed to be a rest stop for all the drivers and they had us get out and wait. They made a call to #32, and what luck! The woman who had been collecting money had found my wallet and was holding it for me. Now we just needed to wait for them and check to see if everything was still inside. This was important, as I had just made a withdrawal at the ATM and had almost 5000 Baht inside. While waiting, our 2 policemen began asking for emails and addresses, saying they wished they could come to California, and if they were able to, they would like to visit us. They had Kiley get out her camera and kept urging her to take more pictures of the scene. We were a little confused. So we took pictures and exchanged emails and they told us their names and that they could get us a room at a guesthouse if we wanted to stay in Ubon. They kept asking if we liked the city and when we were coming back. Finally, #8-32 arrived, and I laid eyes on my wallet again!!! Upon inspection, everything was as it should be and a rush of relief washed over me. But now it was time for photos! Everyone present was ushered over in front of #8-32, with me and the couple running the saugnthaw in front. We took several pictures of them handing my wallet to me and then I was requested to give them an "award" for their kindness. I only had 2 20B and then a 500 and 1000, so I just gave them 40 Baht, though I wish I could have given more, so I had been sure I would never see my wallet again. The policemen then said we had to go and we were back in the car heading.....? It turns out we were headed to the Tourist Police Station, where we found a newsman waiting to interview me for the news. We met the head of the station who shook our hands and thanked us a lot... for losing my wallet? It was all very surreal. Then the news man recorded our names and got copies of all the pictures from Kiley's camera, as did the policemen. Then they took pictures of us with the head of the station and the two policemen. Then one of the policemen asked me some questions on camera such as whether I like Ubon and would tell all my friends in California to come to visit. I of course said Ubon was wonderful and yes, I would tell everyone to come. Then they offered to get us a room to stay another night in Ubon, but we told them that unfortunately we really needed to catch the bus to Khon Kaen, so we were back in the car racing to the bus station. We pulled right up next to the bus we needed and felt very important all of a sudden as the bus station workers rushed us to the ticket booth and took care of everything and then rushed us onto the bus with first row seats, there was a lot of hand shaking, which is very very strange for thailand, and then we were off on the bus.

It was probably the strangest experience I've had in Thailand, but it is very nice to know that the tourist police can be so amazingly helpful. So if you're ever in Thailand, do not hesitate to call 1155 and you will have them at your service.

Now I need to do more research to find out where we are headed! I will post some pictures of us with the police as soon as we're at a computer that can do that.

Miss you all! Much love,
Katie