Got in to Nakhon Ratchasima, also known here in Thailand as Korat, at around 6 after the drive from Saraburi and met up with Dave Kearns and Steve Willet, who had been organising the charity night at The George and Dragon for us. Steve had booked Ros and I in at The Srivichai Hotel and we went and checked in and we had the opportunity of a hot shower for the first time in more than a week and a change of clothes. On to the charity night; excellent turn out and a good time was had by all. Over 20,000 baht raised during the evening at the pub and a further donation of 5,000 baht from Derek Levitt in Korat, who couldn't make it on the night. A great response from the expat community in Nakhon Ratchasima and thanks in particular to Dave, Steve and our hosts at The George & Dragon, Phil and Mam. Don't actually remember leaving though Ros assured me that I did pay my bar bill before we left and if it really was only about 450 baht for the pair of us then I must have spent most of the evening drinking other people's beer!
Sunday, 14 September; This was our first scheduled rest day and a late lie-in after all the Chang the night before was called for. I hadn't eaten anything the previous evening so we were back at The George shortly after it opened at midday for a couple of bacon and egg banjos. We then spent a couple of hours exploring the centre of Korat before we met up with Steve and his missus and we were driven over to Dave's place for a Sunday dinner (something else I couldn't recall talking about the night before!). Back to the hotel to put the finishing touches to the Foundation's second e-newsletter and then the rest of the evening sending it out to the 350+ names on our mailing list and answering my own e-mail while Ros crashed out around 8! It was after midnight by the time I'd finished so not much sleep for me before we got back on the road the following morning.
Monday, 15 September; We got an early morning call (5.30!!) from Yai in Lamphun asking us to send some money up for school fees and a couple of other things that had come up since we'd left so we had to hang around in Korat city until the banks opened at 8.30. This was not what we'd wanted as it was dry early doors and quite cool so we could have made some progress there. Added to that, I had some difficulty getting a cash advance on my Visa card (third time lucky with the banks) and it was gone 10 before we were finally able to check out and make our way to the city limits on the A2 and a stretch of road that was both safe enough for me to walk along and for Ros to stop by the side of without causing problems for ourselves or anyone else. I felt fine once I'd gotten into my stride though those dark clouds were beginning to gather and less than three hours after we'd started, we had our first shower and we were into a service station for the next couple of hours. At around 4, I set off again and managed to keep up a decent pace while the rain held off until around 5.30 and this time, it was serious stuff! I'd just past a service station on the Korat-bound side of the road so Ros did a u-turn and we went back and parked up there. It got dark very quickly and the rain kept coming. Clearly, this was in for the night and so we set the back of the car up for sleeping in. I did get Ros to ask the staff if we could put the tent up on a tiled area that looked like it had been a dining area at some point in the past, but for some reason they weren't happy about that so the back of the car it was. And the rain kept falling. All night!
Tuesday, 16 September; It's now almost 10am, and we've yet to get on the road. It's been raining since I got up at 6.30 and it shows little sign of abating. The people at the service station have at least allowed me to plug the laptop into the mains so that I can do the blog and check my mail. Don't particularly want to be here all day though. If this is in for the day then apparently there is a hotel a couple of kilometers back in the direction of Korat where we can hole up and probably get some decent food as the only thing on offer here at the moment is somtam, which I don't personally class as proper food; just a smelly, spicy salad! It'll be a big set back if we can't make any progess today given yesterday's poor return with the late start at the banks and then the weather turning against us later on.
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