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All too soon, it was the last day of our Thai/Lao trip!  We spent the last day in Khonkaen, walking around and seeing the sights.

As we left our hotel we saw these Thai luxury buses with a tour group arriving at our hotel.  Thai luxury buses are pretty good, but not quite up to the standards of Taiwanese buses.

We started walking from our hotel and down past the #1 Bar and into the downtown area.  On the way we saw more of those cars cut-in-half.  Presumably, mechanics will use these parts to build a whole car.  Would you want one of those?

Last time we were here, we saw ammo but no firearms.  Now they have 2 rifles for sale.

Prior to opening up their shop, these Thai ladies want to wash off the sidewalk.

This sign stopped me dead in my tracks!

We saw this pet shop with this Blue & Gold Macaw.  He’s virtually destroyed his cage.  Big birds like this need a sturdy cage!  Hopefully someone will buy him and give him a large solid cage.

Michael Cannon went with us downtown, because he heard of the hidden market and wanted to check it out with us.  We’re walking to where it begins (after going to an Issan products shop, not shown).

Notice that ramp to the center right.  There are some vendors who have taken up residence underneath it.

Such as this knife sharpener.  I could never make it under that ramp!

As we approach the beginning of the hidden market, Hui-chen finds some snack food.

I tried some and they were good!

If you walk down this alley from the main road you will enter a space in between the backs of the buildings.  This is where the hidden market is.

At this end of the hidden market, there are household items for sale.

As you make your way up (in the northerly direction) you start to find food vendors.

The brown stuff looks like mud, and I have never been able to find anyone who can tell me what it is.  Brunty, do you know?

Many of the items in this area were surprising, as you can tell from the look on Hui-chen’s face.  Much of it looked really good.

Seafood on ice, and all kinds of other fare on offer.

I also don’t know how Thai vendors can get those plastic bags so filled up with air.  All the plastic bags with items on offer are like this.  By the way, I have no idea what this stuff is!

This is near the other end of the hidden market.  We’re almost out of the market.

We took a break at our hotel for a few hours, then headed out to a new place we haven’t been before.  It’s a new mall in Khonhaen and we checked out the food court.

You pay money and get a debit card that you can use at each vendor to buy food.  The offerings are quite varied.

I forgot how much I paid for these dishes, but it was cheap!

This grilled dish was good.

This is part of the mall outside of the food court.

When I first started going to Thailand, there was nothing like this in Khonkaen.  This approached something like you might find in Taiwan.  They’re not quite there yet, though.

This is the name of the mall.

We decided to go to one more place for the evening, before calling it a night.  So we took 2 tuk-tuks back to the area of our hotel.  This tuk-tuk had trouble getting started, so a couple of drivers gave it a good push.

Once it got started, it was smooth going.

We decided to go to a karaoke bar because I haven’t been to one in a long time, and Michael Turton and Michael Cannon had never been to one in Thailand.

This club has enough sound equipment to put on a concert!  It’s all JBL!  The guy in the rear operates the computer while the girls sing.

All the songs were in Thai.

I think we stayed for 2 beers each and called it a night.

This is the hotel where we stayed, the Khonkaen Hotel.

As I commented in our last article as the price of LEDs goes down, we see more of these places lit up like this at night.

The next day we headed back to Taiwan.  The trip back was uneventful, and anticlimactic, compared to our fantastic visit to Thailand and Laos.

We hope you have enjoyed this series about our 2010 trip to Thailand and Laos.  We welcome your comments, questions and retweets.  Thank you for reading!