Thailand 2012, Day Six

Photos by MJ Klein

Day six was mostly a waiting game for me.  I was waiting for the factory boss (Mr. Somkhit) down in Phon to be free to see me.  But that wouldn’t happen until the next day.  I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on transportation such as renting a car like I’ve done a few times before.  In addition to that, I’d pretty much had my fill of traveling by bus, so it looked like I would be spending the day in Khonkaen, walking around and taking photos.

Before I forget, let me mention that I was using a new camera, and I had some trouble framing shots that aren’t tilted a bit.  Please overlook that problem when viewing these photos!  I got better as I used the camera more.

I noticed these guys working on the maze of overhead wires so I stopped to take a few photos.

He was picking up some cables and re-arranging them in the bundle.  Don’t worry though, these are all signal wires and not powerlines.  Telephone, cable TV, etc..

What a mess.  I’d hate to have to work on this.

As I was walking around I couldn’t help but notice how much Khonkaen has changed over the years.

For example, this is Dave’s First Choice restaurant and travel agency.  It’s apparently closed now.  The opening 2 shots of this article were taken there in 2008.

The Silver Saloon has been gone a long time.  I noticed several other places that were no longer there too.  It seems that the heyday of Khonkaen is over.

More walking-around shots.

As usual, lots of spare car parts.

This young man was busy doing some flower arranging.

I pulled back for a wide shot showing the gate.

This place installs aftermarket accessories.

About this time I was getting hungry and wanted to find somewhere to sit down and eat.

Those are some nice squid in the case.

This is a dim-sum restaurant, but they have other fare too.

This is my roast duck, with pink picked ginger.

Steamed dumplings,

and wonton soup.  Everything was pretty good.

On the way back to my room I took a few shots in the general area of the Tamarind (where I was staying).

This place is right across the street from the Tamarind.

Now I forget just where this place is located (guess I need to geotag everything!), but I think it’s on the corner of the Aircon Bus Station.  I’ve never eaten here but it looks interesting.

Khonkaen Nights, Revisited

Instead of making this another separate article, I decided to include it in this article because the following photos were taken on the same day, just in the evening.  Here is the original article and you might want to compare them to see the changes that have occurred since 2008.

Like the first article, I started off at the Number One Bar and headed to the next corner where I took a right turn.

But before I got to the corner I saw this window display that wasn’t here the last time I was in town.

The Chaipat Hotel is still there.

This little store might be new.  It’s on the same side as the Chaipat.

This was disappointing: Seven’s Corner Bar is closed.  Noi told me that Nigel and Gigi sold the bar to someone else and it went under in a relatively short time.

Following the same path as the original article, we head to probably the most interesting area of Khonkaen – Sir Chant Road.

This building still stands, unfinished.

We come to Sir Chant Road.

Looking to the right, we see some new places.  I took a walk down this part of the road and it’s totally changed.  The Supaporn Car Rental is gone now.

This shot shows the other side of this food vendor.

Continuing down the shortcut, heading to the Kosa Hotel.

Way back when, I used to take my laundry to this shop.

The Kosa Hotel with signs in Chinese.

Around the corner to the right and through a very interesting area (in my opinion).

The Kosa Steakhouse is gone (not surprisingly) and a totally new place is here now.

Further down in the same direction….

I turned around and took the same shot I took almost 4 years ago.  This square is really lit up.

This is a shot looking to the left past where the Kosa Steakhouse used to be.

It looks like the same places are still here.

It was at this point I decided to check out renting a scooter because I was tired of walking.  Scooters rent for a few hundred baht per day and I only needed it for that night to drive around looking at stuff.

This is looking back towards that lit-up square, so you have an idea where the rental place is.  I got my scooter in a few minutes and went on my way.

This gate is still here but it looks a bit different now.  We’re going through this gate and taking a left turn.

The view to the left, under the gate.

The old 60 Bar used to be here.  I never went inside this place.

Allow me to quote from the 2008 article:

“At one time this was a very hopping place.  In 2005 I was staying around the corner at thePP Hotel (real name!) and I hung out at the club with the red neon lights at the left.  It was an entirely different place back then.  Directly across the street on the corner was the 60 Bar.  I spent many evenings sitting outside at the 60 Bar surrounded by hundreds of people talking and drinking.  Now this once busy corner is dull and boring.  It makes me wonder how/why successful, busy places go under….”

The Rad is still there.

There is still some kind of restaurant here but the sign is different than last time.

Something not shown in the 2008 article, this shot was taken 180 degrees from the previous one.

This section of road is totally different.  Nothing appears to be the same as before.

The perpetual Khonkaen Night Market.

I found a little place and parked my scooter.  It’s very much like the ones we have in Taiwan.

This is my dinner: baked lasagna, made by a Thai chef.  It was OK.

Later, a guy with a scooter sidecar came by offering grilled dried squid, which I really like.

He said he worked on Taiwan before and knew some Chinese words.  Cool.

After this walking/riding tour, I went back to the Number One Bar for awhile and then back to my room.  I’m sorry if this day seemed boring but this is pretty much what I did as I was waiting for Mr. Somkhit to become available the next day.  Day Seven will find me going back to Phon to the factory and then to the Sabua Resort to see what that place looked like now.

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