The street closes off to automobile traffic as it opens up to street vendors selling food, clothing, jewelry, knick knacks, toys, potted plants, electronics and everything in between. The street is full of bustling energy as hoards of people squeeze through the tight walkways, their faces lit by colored, hanging lights from above as they chew on skewers of chicken and freshly blended smoothies.
This weekend, some friends who teach English to first graders in a city called Nan in Northern Thailand visited me in Khon Kaen. On Saturday, we woke up early to see the temple, but since I don't have a car, we had to catch a songtaew. A songtaew is a form of public bus made from a painted pick-up truck with a tin roof and metal benches in the flatbed.
We needed to hop on the blue, number eight songtaew to get to the temple, so we walked to the street where the number eight drives and waved our hand horizontally in the street when it we saw the blue truck approach. It slowed to a stop and we jumped in the back. When we got to the temple about 15 minutes later, we stepped down off the songtaew and walked to the driver's window. Each of us handed him eight baht, said thanks ("khob kun!") and approached the temple!
