While in Mukdahan I found a place in the shade and was sitting along the Mekong river enjoying the view and reading a bit of my book when this tuk tuk driver wanted to have a talk. It was about 10:30 in the morning and the whiskey smell was strong on his breath and the fact that I did not speak Thai and he did not speak much English did not dissuade him. Our conversation was made up of about 4 sentences that were repeated ever few minutes when he noticed he was setting next to me again. "I speak a little bit of English", "where are you from?", "America Good" and "I lived in Singapore". There was also a lot of Thai mixed in with this and when I asked to take his picture he wanted his tuk tuk in the shot. He was very friendly and seemed like a nice guy so I sat and told him where I was from every couple of minutes for about 10 minutes. I was really happy he did not want to take me anywhere in his tuk tuk but later in Udon Thani I took a tuk tuk where I did not smell the whiskey on his breath but I really need a few drinks after that ride.
In Nakhon Phanom there is a tourist boat that goes a ways up and down the Mekong river and cost only 50 Baht (about $1.60). I shared my table with 3 monks for the short tour. This monk was from Nakhon Phanom and spoke English. The monk told me the 2 accompanying monks where from Surin helping do some work on the Wat (temple) in Nakhon Phanom and even though he was from here this was his first trip on the tourist boat showing his company the sights.
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