Four Beddings, One Wedding and a Funeral

One of my fellow bloggers once commented to me  ” You do pick some rather strange post titles. ”  Maybe he was right.

On my last trip to Thailand I slept on the aeroplane, in a hotel in Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and at our village home. One of my very best friends got married in Khon Kaen and one of Wonderful Wi’s cousins tragically lost their life after a motorbike accident and was cremated in Wilai’s village. Four Beddings, One Wedding and a Funeral. Did that really need an explanation.

With my next holiday in Thailand nearly upon me I thought I’d put together a few photos showing my last trip which follow my journey from England to Udon Thani, via Abu Dhabi, Bangkok and Khon Kaen. You’ll be pleased to read I’ve tried to keep the words to a minimum. Strange titles….what the hell was Mike Rose on about.

I don’t really get too excited about my holidays until I board the coach at Swindon bus station in Wiltshire en route to Heathrow Airport, London. I love falling asleep on a bus and somehow I always wake up as we enter the tunnel leading into Heathrow. It must be the rhythm of the night that makes me sleep.

Click on a photo to enlarge or hover your mouse pointer over a picture for a brief description.

The Christmas choir photograph was taken in Abu Dhabi and the coach photo was shot at Suvarnabhumi Airport bus station as I waited for my evening ride to Khon Kaen. Show me a coach and I’ll sleep no problem.

My mate Dean and his partner Nuan got married in Khon Kaen, it was a quiet affair, just like Khon Kaen. I would like to go back to the city because I’m sure it has a lot more to offer than what I saw in my three days there. I wrote a post Khon Kaen – A Wedding and an Empty Fruit Bowl and I’d like to apologize to Khon Kaen’s citizens if it came over as a little dismissive, I didn’t mean it to, it was just how I felt. And believe me I felt great, I was in Thailand with Wilai.

We arrived in Udon Thani on Christmas Eve and after renting a car headed to our village home. On Christmas Day Wi received a Nintendo Wii for her main present and it wasn’t long before the younger members of Wilai’s family had heard about it and had camped out in our living room. I was happy having fun with our three dogs especially Pepsi the youngest and by far the smallest one.

Sadly in mid December one of Wilai’s cousins, Doy, was badly injured in a motorbike accident just outside Udon Thani city and on Boxing Day the 19 year old young man passed away. A few days later Doy’s body was returned to the village and we attended his cremation at the village Wat (temple).

Whilst staying at our village house we made full use of our rental car and covered a lot of ground in the area with daily visits to many places including Udon Thani, Nong Khai, Ban Dung, Phon Phisai and the World Heritage site at Ban Chiang. On the Road to Ban Chiang is one of my favourite posts I’ve written in 2010 and covers our day trip to the National Museum in Ban Chiang which holds the remains of a prehistoric settlement who lived on the Korat plateau more than 5,000 years ago. It’s a rather light hearted post.

All the photographs on this post have been individually loaded without the use of an image plugin, I hope they load okay as it’s a bit of a trial post with 18 photographs included. Four Beddings, One Wedding and a Funeral, if you can think of an alternative post title then please do pop it in the comments box below.

Here’s a few more photos from our village home, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Suvarnabhumi airport.