Roi Et province Sat/Sun 07/08.06.2014

Roi Et province Saturday 07.06.2014

Have breakfast together, my friend takes me to bus stop and we wait for bus or van to Buriram. He first wanted to go to the market to buy new shoes (which I would have to pay for), but I rejected that idea. Giving in to every money request doesn’t make you “good heart”, it makes you walking ATM!

Bus from Nong Ki to Buriram: 10:28-48 wait at bus stop (no bus station), 10:48-12:12 van to Buriram 60 Baht. 13:13-16:28 bus from Buriram to Roi Et 90 Baht.

My main preferences for hotel are convenient location and cheap price. Convenient location in this case means close to bus station, as I will use public transport. None of the hotels mentioned on internet or in guidebooks is close, so I try googlemaps, and indeed it gives me a hotel in walking distance: My House มายเฮ้าส์. First impression is that it looks abandoned, but there is a woman in the office. 

Price displayed for short time and overnight and the abandoned look of the building gives an idea of what is to come. The first rooms we look at have no hot water, in fact there is no shower head, I would have to use the hose or ladle water over me from the reservoir. But the third room has hot water and aircon, so I take it (300 Baht per night).

I am sure this toilet bowl would have a story to tell if it could talk. What you can’t see (light too bright) is a used condom hanging behind the window (and there were more used condoms and empty wrappings elsewhere on the premises).

You can arrange the pillows to make them look like animals (that's my stuff in the picture):

It seems the hotel is mainly for short time. The lady was reluctant to give me a key to the room because she only has one and is afraid I might lose it. Check out time on Monday is 9 am (!) because she is the only staff and has to be elsewhere during daytime (I checked out 9:20 and she was still there). But she or a family member lives or works near Wat Pa Kung, so there was a chance for a free ride one way, which didn’t materialize.

Go out, to the public park and pond Bueng Phalan Chai (บึงพลาญชัย). Many people around. Such a public park is a great meeting place (observation from visiting provincial towns with or without public park). Between 8 to 9 pm, I make eye contact with three Thai men, they seem to be cruising. One of them follows me outside of the park and involves me in a chat (all in Thai). He asks if he can go with me, I confirm. Minutes later it occurs to me that he meant going to my hotel room, whereas I thought walk with me. I was more or less on my way back to my room, but that would give a wrong signal (I am not interested in sex with him).

So I turn back towards the park, whereupon he asks if I am looking for sex. I am glad that is he direct, so we can discuss matters openly. I just want to look around, and he is not my type.

What is your type?

Slim, brown skin, no body hair.

Do you think I am fat?

I don’t know. I like tall boys. (Not true, but he is not tall, and I have to get the idea of sex with me off the table.)

But I have brown skin. (Takes out his mobile phone to shine light on his arm. It’s true, he has brown skin as I like it. Not the first time that I have to justify not wanting to have sex with someone and arguing over my preferences.)

Then we part. I have never been that close to meeting a sexual partner in real life outside Bangkok and Pattaya. It’s about 8:45, official closing time for the park (the part on the peninsula) is 9 pm, so there are only few people left in the park. Not many people in the part on the mainland (open all the time) either. But a man approaches me and asks if I like boys and offers his service. Too old and to fat, but when I tell him that I like slim boys he leads me to three boys who are closer to my preferences (but still none of them my type). I hear them talking among each other about 500 Baht. After some general conversation I say goodbye and walk back to my hotel.

I walk past an open air restaurant and the staff beckons me to enter. I had dinner in mind anyway, so I go in. The owner (?) Dee welcomes me and we chat about my travel plans. He tells me twice that I am handsome and takes pictures of me with him and his wife (?). When I want to pay he tells me it’s free and invites me to come again tomorrow.

Sunday 08.06.2014

Wat Pa Non Sawan in separate post. Leave the wat 13:19 and walk back. Hitchhike to hwy 23 13:30-39. Hitchhike on hwy 23 back to Roi Et 13:44-14:18. The car that stops has a plastic bag on the cargo area, the bag moves around and gives off sounds of a dog in distress.

I ask the driver and his wife (?), they are taking a dog to a wat. When we stop at a red traffic light, a flower seller has a bewildered and surprised look at the bag, so I am not the only one who finds this weird (whereas for the driver and his wife it seemed completely normal; I do not approve of this, I merely report what I saw.) I wonder if people who put a dog in a plastic bag on the back of their pick-up truck would kill and eat a hitchhiker. 

They are going to Wat Pa Thewapithak, which is on my list of places anyway, so I stay with them (instead of going to Roi Et, saves me some time and effort). There they release the dog, which looks fine and follows them around in the wat (however when I leave, I see the dog walking around alone, maybe they abandoned it at the wat? The whole episode is very strange, but it looks like no harm was done.) 

Wat Pa Thewapithak in separate post. Leave the wat 15:25. Hitchhike back to Roi Et 15:34-44, directly to Wat Burapaphiram (separate post). Hitchhiking in Thailand, originally an emergency measure, now has a fixed place in my travel plans.

Walking around in Roi Et, I notice a man who is obviously drunk sitting on the street, trying to get up but failing. Then I notice he has his trousers down to his upper thighs, sitting on his bare ass. If I were drunk and had my trousers down to my upper thighs, I would have problems to get up as well.

I ponder for a second if I should offer my assistance (take him wherever he wants to go), but there are Thai people around and his plight is self-inflicted.

In the park and around the lake a lot of activity, many people doing sports or just relaxing. This time no cruising, but boys practice breakdancing (3rd picture). That's a wot โหวด [wòːt] in the first picture, a musical instrument which is the symbol of Roi Et.

Back to my room to shower and change clothes. About 8:30, back to the park to see if there is cruising like the previous day. In front of Bua Tong hotel (โรงแรมบัวทอง, golden lotus hotel; near the park), I spot two ladies. My trained eye recognizes from 20 m away that they are not standing there because they felt bored in their room, and indeed, when I walk past she addresses me “Do you like boom-boom?”. I smile and continue to the park. Too late, closed already and few people left. Chat with a group of boys, then go to have dinner at Dee’s restaurant. I ask him about the best way to go to Wat Pa Kung, he finally offers me to drive me tomorrow.

Continued some posts below.

From all the places I have been outside Bangkok and Pattaya, Roi Et is the first where I witnessed gay cruising and streetside available ladies.

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