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What to do in Nowhere Town

April 16th, 2009

Misty Mekong Morning

Chiang, Khan, Thailand – When I first got into Chiang Khan, I panicked. At the Loei bus station, where I caught a songthiaw to Chiang Khan, I bought a bus ticket to Chiang Mai locking myself into 3 days in the small town. Arriving travel-wearied to what seemed a hot and dusty small town, mainly touted as a good place to do nothing, I started to worry. What WAS I going to do for the next few days in this nowhere town?

I checked into my guesthouse, a Thai-style timber house overlooking the Mekong. Over the next few days, things started to reveal themselves. I ate dancing shrimp and coconut candy by the slowest of rapids. I biked through the town’s narrow streets past potted plants and teak houses. I witnessed what seemed to be the Thai-Buddhist St. Patrick’s Day – a stream of wet locals, following a truck hosing them with water, danced down the street waving bottles of Leo beer. One woman wearing mismatching flip-flops stopped in front of my camera to thrust her hips several times and then came over to talk to the owner of the internet café in slurred speech, making sure to offer me a draught of Leo and smack my backside before continuing on.

Each night I went to bed a few hours after watching the setting sun streak orange over the Mekong and each morning I woke at six to take in the misty grey river flanked by muted green banks. I took my meals not as a customer in restaurants, but as invited guest. Early in the morning I ate breakfast with the owner of the guesthouse, Khum Pim, and her motley crew – an adopted son and daughter, friends dropping by, two dogs and three cats. Laab muu, marinated chicken, sticky rice and steamed rice, thin, chewy pieces of pork cooked in palm sugar, clear soup and, my favorite, softly boiled eggs, with translucent whites and creamy, crumbly yolks, drizzled with fish sauce and red chile sauce. Though usually not a fan of eggs on their own, I could have eaten a dozen of those.

After three days, it seemed I left too soon. As it turns out there’s a lot to do when you’re doing nothing.