Getting Hotter Every Day

Tuesday, July 20, 2010--Ubon Ratchathani (Continued)

After staying inside in the afternoon, I returned to the park in the evening.  It was much more active than the night before.

As I entered the park, I saw men using gym equipment.  I walked that way.  A young man came up to me and spoke English.  He said that the gym equipment is provided by the city and is free for anyone to use.  I could tell he wasn't Thai, so I asked him if he lived here and where he is from.  He said he is from Tajikistan and came here as a volunteer English teacher.  He was very proud to tell me that he has recently gotten a contract from the Thai government to stay here and teach English.  Then he got a call and had to leave to meet a friend.

I explored the park action.  I found a group of young men playing native musical instruments and listened to them for quite a while.  There was a xylophone-type instrument, two kinds of flutes, a stringed instrument, and  drums.  One of the flutes was interesting because it is built like a Gatling gun and playing it involves constantly turning it to be sure to blow into the correct part for the right note.

In the back corner of the park where they have the wax sculptures, there were men making cane sculptures using strips of cane or bamboo.  There was a giant elephant and other forms that were still taking place which I could not yet identify.

At 19:15, there was a large fireworks display.  After that, I headed back to my neighborhood because I could see a dark cloud with lightning in the distance.  I wanted to get nearer to my room in case it started to rain.  I stopped nearby and had a big bowl of soup for dinner before arriving at the room.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010--Ubon Ratchathani

I returned to the park again this morning.  At 9:30 it was already very hot.  The rain never came last night, so we have gone 3 days with no rain and the heat seems to be growing each day.

As I entered the park, I ran into the British guy and his Thai girlfriend from the bus yesterday.  We talked for a while.  There's something strange about him, though.  He leans inward and downward as he talks.  That and the tone of his speech reminds me of the Fagin character in Oliver Twist.  He's a bit too ingratiating and a bit too solicitous.  It's a bit creepy talking to him, but he has been nothing but kind in his comments and suggestions.

After reading in the shade on a bench for about 2 hours, I returned to the hotel.  The heat was almost unbearable on the way back.  I stayed inside using the computer to do research for my trip to Laos next week.  Then I went back out at 18:00.

The past couple of days, by 18:00 the air has been quite comfortable.  Not tonight.  It felt hot, and my shirt quickly became sticky.  The grass and open space of the park didn't help either.  I stayed for two hours and remained overly warm the entire time.  I did see some nice entertainment, however.  There was a stage with another native band performing, and they had singers and dances to perform with them.  I also watched a pantomime group and some young people dancing.

Again, I stopped for soup on the way home.  This one was made with crispy noodles and had a very thick broth.  It had meat, but I'm not sure what it was.  It looked a bit like pork, but the texture was more like beef.  It may have been water buffalo.  However, a TV report I saw this afternoon said that dog meat looks a lot like pork.