Touching Down in Ubon
August 12th, 2009
Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand – I wanted to return to Isaan (Northeast Thailand) for one last time before leaving the country so I chose Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand’s far east at the corner of Laos and Cambodia for a short trip. I took an overnight bus on the wonderfully strange Nakhon Chai Air seemingly so named for the features that mimic an actual plane: meals and beverages, individual TVs, reclining seats with a massage function and attendants in uniform, perfect makeup and hair. It was nicer than the last plane I took to the U.S.
After getting in and settling in, I stopped in at Choikee for breakfast on my way to rent a motorbike. It was open-front restaurant where middle-aged men leaned over unclean tables smoking and drinking tea. They had an assortment of Western and Thai dishes, but I opted for Bah Kut Teh, the stewed pork with Chinese herbs, which turned out to be a fabulous chance choice. Aromatic of star anise, the soup was presented rather elegantly for plain surroundings. Enoki mushrooms, dusted with ground white pepper, fanned out across the napa cabbage-wrapped stewed pork and the whole arrangement was surrounded by a clear brown broth. The broth was soy salty, herbaceous and spiced, the pork tender and flavorful and the vegetables crisp tender.
Once finished with breakfast and sorted out on my motorbike rental, I set off for Ban Pa Ou, a small weaving village north of Ubon. Many of the villages around Ubon specialize in a craft, like weaving cotton or bronze gongs. Similarly, parts of the road seem to specialize in one food. You’ll see the same item at stall after stall for one whole stretch and then there’s nothing for miles and miles and miles.
At first I thought it was a bit peculiar that a whole strip of road would be peppered with stands all selling the same thing – salapao (the Chinese steamed buns) or the same exact assortment of fruit (green plums, dragon fruit, rambutans). It seemed that it would be easier to sell something if your stand was either differentiated from the other stands closeby or far enough away that there wouldn’t be competition. But given that many of the villages all sell similar products, perhaps these roadside vendors don’t see it this way. They’ve grown up in communities where everyone has prospered together doing the same thing. In any case, I ended up buying a young coconut with its refreshing liquid and tender meat from the coconut stretch near Ban Pa Ou. After sipping my fill, I set the coconut in its plastic bag on my handlebar, from which it whipped, dripping and drizzling coconut juice all over my leg for the entire ride home.
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