After a little over an hour on the bus I arrived back in familiar territory in Phayakkhaphum bus station and rang Khoon Maa to find that they had taken Poope to the hospital in Koen Kaen but thankfully just for a needed checkup but it did still leave me in the lurch at little.
Agreeing to stay at the cousins until they returned I got on the back of a moto taxi to realize I didn't know the address despite havinglived there for 2 months. I knew I had it written down somewhere in the abyss of the bottom of my backpack but didn't want to have spill the contents of that all over the bus station floor so instead I instructed the guy just to drive while giving directions of left or right along the way which consisted of me waving my hand in front of him since he didn't seem to understand my Thai or English.
The cousins and other surrounding relatives are some of the nicest people I've met traveling but with my Thai not having improved much along with their English it was a long afternoon where I found I could talk best with the 2 year old boy whose Thai skills where about on par with mine. Ok I'll admit he was far better than me but at least I was fully clothed.
With dinner approaching they prepared a huge Korean BBQ style feast thing with some kind of home made Thai whisky except it was red which should have been my first warning.
Khoon Maa and Khoon Phaaw arrived back during dinner along with Popeye and Poope and was great to see them again as the number of relatives slowly grew around the BBQ. With them constantly changing places and moving about it meant that when ever someone sat down next to me and spotted my empty glass they speedily filled it up with more of the red fire water as the slow afternoon soon turned into a very quick night.
28 votes 
This is a top pick!
