Overnight Outing

On Thursday afternoon we took the bus into Phitsanulok with the intent to stay overnight at P1 House, a hotel that Chris recommended to us, and then go to the early morning market with Pung Pond as our guide. Pung Pond is a 15 year old student at Chalermkwan school where Chris teaches who loves opportunities to practice her English.

Our trip into the city went well but when we got to P1 House they were full up. We were momentarily stymied but they gave us a couple of suggestions in the neighbourhood. We settled on a pleasant enough room at Kraesang Place. It was clean, comfortable with hot shower and air conditioning for 400 baht a night ( about $13) so we were happy. We went to a recommended Vietnamese restaurant nearby for dinner and enjoyed fish, pork, vermicelli cooked in unique ways. This was served with a big bowl of fresh leaves of lettuce, mint, basil and one other green that I don't know the name of. In North America you get a tray of dinner rolls and butter to nibble on as you await your entree, no wonder we North Americans have trouble with the waist line.

We got up at 6 am, had coffee served by the hotel receptionist, and then went to meet Pung Pond at the school gate at 7. She gave us a brochure that she had designed and written for the tour and we took a 15 minute walk along the Nan river to reach the market. Pung Pond was very chatty and told us lots of things about the river about the market and about herself and her family. The marke t is open from 5 to 11 am every day and has a fascinating array of food and most everything else you might want to buy.

The busy market

JoAnne and Pung Pond

We went back with Pung Pond to school for 8 o'clock and school assembley. When the assembley was over we were invited to join a group of students on a river boat tour. The students had a project to practice English as tour guides on the boat as it went along the river. Our job was to be the tourists. This was an unplanned for surprise, but we thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and enjoyed the students. They ranged all the way from very shy to real performers.

Students boarding the boat

Along the river

We got back to our hotel room about 11:30, just in time to check out. We had had quite a full morning, much more than we had expected. We found our way to the bus stop for the bus back to Mono Naresuan. We had to wait for about 45 minutes so we had a banana and some ice cream. We arrived home about 1:30, tired out but happy to have made our little journey with no major calamities and lots of good memories.