Home and Away

Many of you may be wondering what was so important that we missed the auction for the house we wanted to buy just to go on holiday.  The point was, it wasn't just a holiday.  Barnadi's boss Sam was having a party to celebrate his 50th birthday back in his home town near Nong Khai in the North of Thailand.  As Sam was kind enough to take me to Hobart for my last birthday, we accepted his invite to join him on his.  Rather than fly straight to Thailand we figured we could use the opportunity to visit some of Barnadi's family in Jakarta, it even worked out cheaper to fly to Jakarta first and get a connecting flight to Thailand later.  On top of all this, Gemma and Dan were leaving Australia to head back home, but they weren't planning to fly directly back and so we arrange for them to join us in Indonesia so that we could show them around.


Sunken temple, Mekong River

We flew to Jakarta on the Australia day bank holiday and stayed a couple of nights with Barnadi's sister Bariah so we could spend some time spoiling her two children (of the two suitcases we brought only one had clothes in, the other was jam packed with toys and presents for all Barnadi's nephews and nieces) and getting a free dental check up while we were at it.  Next we flew to Bangkok, where we caught up with our friend James, a friend we made in Cambodia just over a year ago when we were moving to Australia.  We only stayed in Bangkok one night before flying up to Udon Thani where Sam's boyfriend Saf picked us up and drove us up to Sam's village where the party was going to be.  Sam is from a small town along the banks of the Mekong river, and as we had a couple of nights there, we were able to have a day exploring the area, including getting a boat trip along the Mekong from Nong Khai.  The boat took us across the river towards Laos and then out around a submerged temple which had been swallowed up by the river following a land slide many years ago.

Victims of the food fight

The party was a great experience, it was held at one of Sam's sisters houses, and the whole village was in attendance.  The majority of people present could not speak any English but that didn't stop everyone trying to get to know us, and with the beer and Thai whiskey flowing faster and fuller than the Mekong, there was plenty of singing, dancing and food fights to replace the need for words.  The night reminded us a lot of a wedding we went to in Poland, where we were in a similarly small village at a celebration where we didn't understand anything anyone said, yet still had an amazing time.  The biggest difference was that at Sam's birthday neither Barnadi or I were joining in with the drinking.  Not drinking turned out to give us a distinct advantage, as we were able to borrow a car to drive back to our hotel on the banks of the Mekong.

After one more night in Bangkok we headed back to Jakarta were we met up with Gemma and Dan who had spent the last few days relaxing in Bali.  We were also reunited with Oki, a driver we used the last time we invited friends to Indonesia.  Oki drove us all straight down to Bandung from the airport (Gemma and Dan would have to wait to experience the joys of exploring Jakarta).  Whilst out there we took them to some stunning volcanic craters and went for a swim in a hot spring, before spending a couple of nights at our house in Puncak.  Inevitably we had to return to Jakarta and it was here where we had to say goodbye to Gemma and Dan one last time as they continued with their long Journey home.  Our time in Jakarta was not quite over yet, as we arrived at Chinese new year, we were obliged to go on a tour of all Barnadi's half brothers and sisters giving out little red envelopes, and even receiving a few.



With Gemma and Dan at Kawah Domas