motorbiking

I returned to green and pleasant Namsom on Sunday evening and had the most bizarre experience.

I met a lovely Algerian-Belgian man on the buses back who has been living in a village near Namsom for the last four years. He married a Thai woman and has an 18-month-old baby boy with her.

But she has run off to work in Bangkok so he has been left holding the baby and living in rural Thailand near his parents-in-law. He would like to return to Belgium with his little boy but cannot because his ex-wife will not sign the papers. Children can pay parents way when they are older, especially as a half-falang boy could command more money in certain industries.

So he is stuck here for the time. Very sad.

After saying our goodbyes, I carried on to Namsom and got off the bus at the station as normal when the bus driver started calling to me. I had no idea what he was saying.

I understand 'What is your name?', 'Where are you from?', 'How old are you?', 'Is is delicious?' in Isaan and Thai, 'Are you hungry?' and other random questions. This however was beyond me.

I heard someone mutter Ban Falang and assumed he must be telling me I should get off and did I know where I was going - maybe so he could hire me a tuk tuk from his brother or something.

I motioned that I would walk and started off without thinking much of it. Suddenly the orange bus pulls up alongside me (it doesn't normally go this way) and the driver motions me to get in the cab.

So I hop in and he chats merrily away and I nod merrily and repeat some of the things he says and point to two cuddly toys and say na rak - cute.

He drives me home but his chatting means he takes no notice of my hand gestures and eventually I hop out a few hundred metres from Ban Falang rather confused with the whole experience. I then spot a huge cow grazing on a leash held by two men at the side of the road.

Later I realise it is a buffalo.

As I arrive at the front door of the house, the bus driver sails past me, waving merrily.

I go to dinner with Pi Mon at the hospital and we catch up on the weekend's events and we chat about the differences between home and here and she tells me about Isaan weddings. She is very sorry that I am to leave at the end of the week and promises to come to dinner with us.

Tae, Pi Mon and I attempt to use the hospital computers for illicit emails but the gods must be watching because every time we log on, they crash and we ave a fun half hour guessing whose internet will turn off someone elses.

On Monday, Pi Mon borrows Tae's motorbike and comes to take me on a tri. It is threatening to thunder but after a while we decide to brave it. Natalie has returned from Laos so the three of us jump on the bike and potter about 15km to the big Buddha.

This is a large golden Buddha on a hill next to the road to Ban Phue and as all the vehicles pass it, they beep there horn and passengers offer a prayer. We park the bike at a peaceful lake and walk to the Buddha.

Before the shrine is a kind of fortune telling exercise. We hold a tube full of sticks and shake until one falls on the ground. The number of the stick corresponds to a card telling your fortune.

Typically I throw am unable to get any out for ages and then six fall at once and I have to repeat it.

Number 56 shows that while things are ok now, I will be very happy in the future. Right now I must be on my own but I will be very lucky in love soon. As Pi Mon put it, great love is 'coming soon'. We think this is very funny and rather accurate. So that's nice.

We go back to Ban Falang and make our way to a noodle stand where we meet Mooy the thai coordinator here - who joins us for lovely noodle soup.

I find a baby cockroach in the toilet at Ban Falang and spray it to within an inch of its life and later fall asleep to the sound of a dragonfly larger than my hand trying to escape the large attic room I sleep in.