Khon Kaen

I'm going to visit my "cousin" in the northeast! 

I write it in quotations cause we're not really cousins, our parents have known each other since before I was born so we call each other cousins and each other's parents as auntie and uncle

I'm excited for the northeast cause it's my favorite type of Thai food! There's a lot of punchy flavors, really spicy and really fun!

Unfortunately I didn't take a pick of what I packed but I'll tell you!

Tom Bihn

2 tank tops

1 T-shirt

1 button up shirt

1 shorts

1 pant

1 dress

1 PJ set

3 undies

1 bra

iPad

Nook

Toiletries

Bag of cords

I wasn't sure how long I would be here... At least a week I thought... So I packed just in case stuff too

I'm taking a coach bus up there (you'd think I learned my lesson huh?), it's an 8 hour bus ride and I have taken this bus company before and I know it's legit! I wouldn't hesitate to take them again

Nakorn Chai Air

This is my coach bus, I got to pick my seat and it costed me 420B ($13.05) for the Gold Class

This is the hostess

She passed out nuts and juice

A boxed lunch, then wet naps and a soy milk box when we arrived!

Nong Yod (nong means younger person) and his mom, Na Caig (na means auntie or uncle who's younger than your parents) picked me up and took me to nong Yod's new house... There I took a nap cause it was way too hot to do anything outside of the house just yet

After my nap we went to an outdoor market where there were a bunch of retail and food shops just to walk around and see a few things but we went to a different place for dinner

We tried an Isaan sukiyaki style place that offered a flavored broth which you dip raw meat and vegetables in just like sukiyaki or shabu shabu but the broth is intensely spicy!!! It was so delicious and it hurt to eat so I knew it was going to hurt coming out... Guaranteed! 

But I couldn't stop eating, it was so good!

The pot of soup you cook your veggies and meat in... We ordered pork and beef, the veggies come with

We also had beef larb, an Issan favorite made with ground meat, chilies, onions, cilantro, lime juice, fish sauce and toasted rice powder... In this case, since we ordered beef it had ground beef, tripe, and liver. I've never had it with all the other innards so it was a nice surpise. I don't normally like liver like this but it added a balanced flavor to the dish... Of course it would help if the dish was correcltly seasoned to begin with, this one was not

After dinner they asked if I wanted dessert and I told them I wanted Roti and they took me to the best Roti place in town!

It was delicious! As you can see, I love Roti!

The next morning they took me to eat a soup with pork blood in it! It actually had all other pork innards (intestine, kidney, stomach) and meatballs, and you eat it with a bowl of rice. It was a great bowl of pork innards... Again, I don't really eat liver but all the other innards had good flavor and texture. The greenery was some sort of herb that the old timers love to eat, I don't know the name in English but it tasted slightly herby but was good

They also sell Lap Cheong here, a sweet Chinese sausage turned red from hanging

And they make buttered sandwiches with the Lap Cheong and Vietnamese ham (made sort of like mortadella or bologna but wrapped in banana leaves and boiled or steamed)

You can order it with a sunny-side up egg and dip the sandwiches in there, so good!

After breakfast they took me to Nong Khai, the last city on the Thai side before you cross in to Laos

Just like Mae Sai/Burma, it's a border city with tons of shopping... We walked around a bit and Na Caig bought a couple of things but we decided it was more important to go eat

For some reason this area is known for Vietnamese food... So we went to the most famous restaurant along the riverside called Daeng Namnuang... Specializing in fermented pork sausages

These ladies wash lettuce all day long!

Yummy!!! Fresh and fried spring rolls, fermented pork sausages, fresh veggies, Bún noodles

Sour fermented pork ribs, rice paper and various chili sauces

Basically eaten like a lettuce wrap or Saam (Korean lettuce wraps)... Pile yummy goodness into lettuce and/or rice paper, add sauce and enjoy. Now repeat! Oh man.... This was my second time at this restaurant and I just can't get enough!... It's not quite the same Vietnamese food I'm used to in LA but it's still pretty damn good! 

The riverside view from the dining area

They also have a store front selling their fermented sausages to take home! You can take home a small/medium/large box with 5/8/10 pieces for 150/180/210B ($4.65/5.58/6.51), respectively... So cheap!

After walking back out though the shopping area, I noticed piles of things that looked like fur nada skedaddle Na Caig what they were... It's water buffalo skin! People in the area, an especially Burmese people, boil them and use them in soups, medicine, and to chew on! This was so bizarre! And quite expensive! I don't remember how much but I remember being surprised 

After lunch we went to a salt scrub spa that belongs to Na Caig's cousin... Along certain parts of Thailand you can find natural field salt that people will harvest for various uses... One of the by-products for this place is cosmetic salt, and because this area is so much hotter than the rest of Thailand, the water comes out naturally hot... Really hot!

So this is where our hot water tubs are located... All outdoors next to the natural hot water dam

But first we have to scrub our skin with salt and tumeric, Na Caig went first

The salt helps to exfoliate the skin and this salt was nice cause it wasn't sharp, the tumeric helps to even out skin tone and rid the skin of toxins

After the scrub you can get in to the hot tub.... It was SOO hot I couldn't get in to it even after it's been sitting for an hour! I had to slowly ease each foot and leg into the water then slowly ease my body into the tub and sat for like 5 minutes and I started to feel light headed... There's no way raising my body temperature this high is a good thing so I got out! But my aunt insisted I get back in so the powers of the hot water will work its magic on me.... Again I felt light headed and had trouble breathing... I told them what I was experiencing and they said some people feel that way and it's ok, just take as much of the hot water as you can and get out  

After the tub we got a tour of her salt fields... It's quite an elaborate and heavy duty process

This guy is transporting salt over to be shipped elsewhere 

These people sifting the salt out of the dirt fields 

After our salt scrub hot springs we went to the owner's employee's house who has a son who's supposed to be clairvoyant but will only speak through his mother and not look at anyone... He doesn't want any money, doesn't want any charity... But will "look" into the issues people ask him about... I had to say a prayer and write my name and concerns on a piece of paper, pick white flowers and float them in is little water fountain.... It's was a pretty weird experience, I can't say I quite understand how this kid was going to get the message of what he "saw" about my concerns to me or how it was all happening... So we just left and headed back to KK

We stopped for dinner at a place that specializes in pork collar (yummy!!) 

We had grilled pork collar, pork larb, pork Nam Thok salad, and Tom Saap soup. The grilled pork collar was nice and sweet, and juicy. The Nam Thok salad is grilled pork tossed in a spicy sauce mixture, not my favorite of all these dishes but still good. The larb was soooo delicious!! This one had so much flavor compared to the beef one we had the night before! Tons of ground pork and pork skin! And the Tom Saap is a spicy, sour soup made with pork spare ribs. This soup was so spicy but it was so amazingly delicious that I couldn't stop eating it! I like this soup so much more than Tom Yum, it has so much more going on! 

This is the restaurant kitchen! All outdoors and quite small!

Na Caig and I have been trying to figure out the day that I would be returning to Bangkok. She would be riding the bus back with me cause she needed to be in Bangkok for a few days with her mom. We also knew that nong Yod had to go out of town for a wedding and we wouldn't have a car to use so it would be easier if we left, and Na Caig's sister, Na Thoi, wanted to take me to Hua Hin and Cha Am for her long weekend so we decided we would take a late bus out of KK and be back in Bangkok early morning

So we had lunch at a grilled chicken place... Grilled chicken in Thailand is different cause they use house or local chickens and not factory farms chickens, and the grilled chicken in Isaan region is different from the rest of Thailand cause they use a different marinade technique

House chickens are more scrappy looking than factory farmed chickens... They're allowed to roam free and eat the food they were evolved to eat so their meat is much more flavorful and dark

We ordered Som Tum Thai, Som Tum Laos (like Som Tum Thai but no peanuts and adds fermented fish paste called Pla Ra), pork jerky and sticky rice. Some Tum Thai is delicious as always but Som Tum Laos was so spicy I couldn't eat more than 2 bites! I just dipped my sticky rice into the sauce cause the Pla Ra makes it really funky and delicious! Raw veggies are always served on the side to help cool down the mouth

We also had Duck Larb - ground duck meat and duck innards... This was the best larb I've ever had! It was so juicy and punchy in flavor. All the innards added a complex balance to the dish... It makes my stomach rumble just thinking of it 

Now the chicken, grilled to perfection, chopped in to pieces and sprinkled with fried garlic... They even serve the face with it! Can you see it at the bottom of the plate? This chicken wad good, nice and juicy, really had good flavor... But compared to the chicken in Ayutthaya it wasn't as awesome... Although Isaan style grilled chicken isn't laquered with sauce, it was the sauce that made Ayutthaya chicken delicious

For dessert we had Tuptim Crop... Tuptim is what the redish balls are called, it's also the same name for pomegranate which it resembles... It's made of tapioca balls and flour, and food coloring. Really good Tuptim should have a slight chewy texture from the tapioca flour and a nice snap or crunch in the middle from the tapioca balls. Accompaniments usually depend on what the place wants to serve with it or what you choose to put in, in this case it's jackfruit. You can also do sweetened pumpkin, coconut jelly, taro, etc... All served in iced coconut milk sweetened with simple syrup and rose water... Traditional Thai dessert that's refreshing! 

After lunch they took me to see a famous temple in KK called Wat Nongwang 

Each level is a climb up the stairs and displays different artifacts until you get to the top

The first level is has a little shrine in the middle where you can give donations for a bouquet of lotus flower and incense to pray... You can also "donate" money for a gift basket full of necessities a monk would need and offer it for blessings. I use quotations because you're basically buying it and they return the gift basket to the table so that other people may "donate" it again... They will use the money to buy the things they need or to keep up the grounds of the wat, etc.

We climbed up to the top where there was a beautiful view of the city and a very nice breeze as the other levels just offered hot air 

At the top there's another shrine you pray to and can offer donations 

At first I noticed both the first floor and the top floor shrines were filled with little jars of water and I thought it was holy water... I asked Na Caig why we were praying to holy water and she clarified and told me that there's water but that it's housing the bones of those most sacred... So I looked closer and I saw little rocks in the holy water... She explained that very holy monks, their bones aren't like human bones, they turn in to these rocks and people store them in holy water and pray to them

Then we bought some bread ends from a bakery and went to a pond to feed the fish... This is a way Thai people like to make merit as well... They offer food so that they will have good luck or blessings 

Then is started to rain like crazy so we went back to Yod's house to wait it out... This dog lives across the street but likes to sneak in to Yod's yard so I got a picture with her.. Meet Yoke, her name means Jade in Thai 

Once the rain died down, we decided to get dinner. One of the things I haven't gotten to eat but have been dreaming about is Khao Piak, literally translates to wet rice, a soup noodle dish made with pork

This place was packed! They only do 2 things here, Khao Piak and stewed chicken feet (noodles or no noodles)

Lots of huge pots ready to go with this stuff!

The broth is made with pork neck bones, the rice noodles are really thick round noodles that help to thicken the broth. It's served with the neck bones, Vietnamese ham, cilantro, green onions, chilies, vinegar and fried garlic... The broth had such amazing lip smacking qualities, the addition of fried garlic added a nice depth to the soup... I can't believe I ate most of this! It was so good! A great way to end this trip!

I wanted to come to the northeast cause I wanted to eat, I'm telling you it's the best food in Thailand! The flavors are so punchy and spectacular! It was a really great 4 days in KK and I can't wait to come back!

We took Nakorn Chai  air back to Bangkok, this time we took First Class so the ticket was 560B ($17.36) per person. I think this was a great choice to do overnight bus ride as we left KK at 11:50pm, the seats of the First Class bus reclines down without bothering the person behind you so you can sleep easy through the night... Again they provided us with a snack, juice box and a box meal consisiting of 4 shumai dumplings and a steamed pork bun (I saved mine to eat later), then when we were about to arrive they gave us a wet towel to refresh and a box of soymilk... A really great company with excellent customer service!

We arrived in Bangkok at 7am, Na Thoi picked us up, dropped me off at home to refresh and repack, then picked me back up around 11 to head to Hua Hin... Beach time!

Follow me on Instagram @vnesst