It was the end of the working week and sadly time to say goodbye to some of our fellow volunteers. My housemates Maryam and Louise were flying back home. Our coordinator Nam organised a big meal together at the Starfish office. Nam's mum is a top chef and made a huge pot of pad Thai for all of us. It was absolutely delicious. We were also lucky to experience Thai dessert of colourful wheat balls in coconut milk. It was very sweet and homely and resembled fruit loop cereal in milk.
After wishing Louise goodbye the next day, we enjoyed a day in the park with a picnic, cards and books. It was quiet and sunny so very relaxing.
For Maryam's farewell, we decided to go to a karaoke bar. We were unable to find the place where music was blaring from, so in the end settled for a rooftop restaurant. They had western and Thai food on their menu. The waitresses were unable to understand anything we were saying as they did not speak any English. So we pointed out our choices, gesticulating for quantities. Forty five minutes later there was still no sign of most of our meals. All the other tables around us were served food in this time, even though their dishes were more complex. We were unable to wait any longer so decided to ask for the bill and pay for our drinks and leave. This took some time to communicate, almost as long as we were waiting for our food. Eventually having finally paid, we left. Where to go now?
We thought to try our local restaurant who were always quick to serve food, were friendly and accommodating. Much to our horror it was shut! Now what! Surin is a small town and there aren't so many places to eat near our house. We thought to venture down on same road and explore our options. Surely it would be third time lucky?
On our way, we were obstructed by a pack of dogs that were loitering around in the middle of the street. Oh dear. They looked ferocious but awkward, and we were hesitant to walk past them. They seemed to be stuck together at their rears. We were unsure if they were mating or not and we were not comfortable to be around them. We crossed the road, hoping they wouldn't bark or follow us. It was fine and we were able to continue our journey. Next, we came across a weak looking wooden bridge which would be means to get across to the other side of the road. This looked very unstable and the risk of falling into the dirty water and catching dengue fever from water mosquitos was too much to bring out our risky personalities! We just wanted to sit together somewhere and eat for Maryam's last meal! Why not just try the place that was next to us on the side of the road, we thought. Little did we realise that this was a hotpot restaurant that did not understand the concept of vegetarianism. It was not possible to order just small side dishes either. Two of is were vegetarian and others weren't keen for meat hotpots, so after awkward thank yous to the waitresses, we were back to the drawing board.
Fourth attempt now and finally we found somewhere that was lit up. It had many people sat in the restaurant, so looked like a good option. We were very happy to be seated and presented with English menus and an English speaking waitress! Having taken all evening to find, we were short on time now, so we stuck to ordering simple dishes. While we waited for our food, we witnessed a van park up and the doors open up to a luxurious looking interior with leather suite inside! There were some men exchanging carrier bags and it all looked rather black market. Our attention was then diverted to one of the customers introducing themselves to us, requesting for introductions. It turned out that her brother thought we were a beautiful bunch of foreigners and insisted on paying for our meal. We declined the offer politely. They then got the waitress to send us the same message. Again, we declined the offer politely. The food arrived and we were delirious to finally be seated and eating. As we finished up and asked for the bill, the waitress explained that the gentleman who requested earlier, had already paid for us. Furious as we had already declined the offer, we had no choice, we didn't want to give them the wrong impression, so we left quickly without looking back.
We were grateful to be back home after an eventful evening. What a send off for poor Maryam!
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