In Search of the Bar Girl Factory – Part 5 – Back to Bangkok

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Click here to read Part 3

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The sun came up on Tuesday and started drying the rivers of water that had run through the streets of Ubon from the torrential rain on Monday night. My “nugget”, Kwang, was now a memory, and due to the upcoming parade on Wednesday there was no option for us to stay in the hotel… they were fully booked. So there was no question about whether or not to check out – the only question was where to go and what to do after checkout.

I figured that we would either try to stay in or near Ubon for another night (possibly see Kwang again) and see the parade on Wednesday, or maybe abandon Ubon in favor of another night in Buriram where there’d been a bit more happening and where we’d left at least one promising club unvisited.

Blogger X had no such ideas in mind.

“I want to be in Bangkok sometime this evening” he announced to me early in the day.

Okay….

We decided to go straight back from Ubon Ratchatani. The only question was which route to take. I was suggesting that we take the southern road (route 24) rather than going back the same way we’d come. BX wanted to look at it on the map.

I unfolded my map to show him what I was suggesting.

He looked at the map, then at me, and asked how far it was to the border with Laos. I figured it was between 60 and 90 minutes.

BX needed to make a border run sometime this month. He’d been planning on doing it the following week, bu he asked how I’d feel about going to Laos now, since we were so close.

Sure, no problem, I told him.

Or, more specifically, the only problem wasn’t really a problem at all. My visa is a single entry visa. Single entry visas are cheaper than multiple re-entry visas, and if I do want to leave the country I can simply pay for a re-entry permit before leaving, but it costs a couple of thousand baht. I told BX that I’d probably stay in Thailand while he crossed over to Laos and back.

No sweat. We had a plan.

We looked at the nearest town on the Laos border. It was (from memory) Kawng Chiam. We left Ubon heading east. It took about an hour and 20 minutes.

The border between the two countries is a wide slow flowing river. You could probably swim across. There was a lazy ferry service, with a fair bit of restaurant-n-souvenir action on the Thai side, but not much on the Laos side. We made enquiries and found out that to make a border run and get the passport stamped it would be necessary to go to Chawng Mek, a small border town about 20 kilometers to the south.

We hopped in the truck and 15 minutes later we were pulling into a typical Thai border town. It looked like all the others that I’ve seen. Basically a large funnel lined with shops, restaurants and carts on two sides, narrowing into a controlled area between two large iron fences. Lots of cars and buses. Tons of foot traffic. No shade. Bright, oppressive sunshine and heat radiating off of acres of asphalt.

Blogger X hopped out and headed for the mouth of the funnel. I took over the driver’s seat of the car and started a long lazy loop.

I figured he’d be be gone a couple of hours, so I parked the truck on a side street away from the crowds, and started walking into the market area looking for some lunch.

I spotted a really nice looking restaurant and went in to eat lunch. I ordered and was about halfway through my food when my phone rang. It was Blogger X:

“I’m done and back in Thailand!”

Well fuck me with a feather… that was quick.

I told him how to find me, and 5 minutes later he was across the table ordering some food of his own.

By midafternoon we were back in the truck and facing west. The Navigation system said that we would arrive in Bangkok at 10:18 p.m. Cool.

Blogger X started driving. We had a shade over 8 hours of highway ahead of us.

He did the first three hours, then we switched. I did the middle three, and he took us home over the last 120 minutes.

During my driving stretch we put on some Thai language CDs and spent an hour or more translating Thai words and phrases into English. Good practice and something I should do more often. It’s something I would do more often if I drove a car here.

BX dropped me at my front door – the same place he’d picked me up at 2 o’clock on Sunday afternoon – around 10:30 pm on Tuesday night.

While I was gone, I’d told a girl I know that she could use my room. She appreciates it for the air conditioning and the fact that she can walk to work in just a few minutes, saving her an hour a day and about 120 baht in travel costs.

I had told her I’d be home Wednesday night or Thursday, but when I got in Tuesday night there was no sign of her… not even a toothbrush. I knew she’d stayed there on Sunday night because I talked to her on the phone. I figured that perhaps she’d decided to stay at home, or maybe she’d gotten picked up by some guy with a nicer apartment or hotel room.

I unpacked my bag, took a shower, and plugged into the internet for the first time in about a week.

Law and Order SVU was broadcasting on http://www.justin.tv/badboyztv5

I started watching it around midnight, and I was enjoying it so much that I simply didn’t fall asleep.

Around 5 a.m., just as I was beginning to think about turning off the “television” I heard a key in the lock. The door opened.

It was, of course, the girl who was staying in my room.

She froze, peering through the door at my form in the dark room, visible in the flickering light of my computer monitor, sitting on a small table on top of my bed. She looked for a long time, then slowly put her hand inside the door and turned on the light.

“What are you doing here?!” she asked me.

“Well”, I said, “I live here.”

The End