Stay day in Mukdahan

December 18, 2016

It's such a luxury to sleep in, get up in the morning, have a leisurely breakfast, and not think about where I need to go, and about where I'll sleep tonight.

My room at the Riverfront Hotel. I had been lying on the bed and messed it up, so it looked neater when the bed was freshly made. Not in view is a desk and a refrigerator, and the television.

So I slept late, at least by my recent schedule, past 6 am. I had breakfast, which was included with the room at the hotel, and dawdled. It was a great breakfast and I overate. It was on the top floor of the hotel, with a great view over the river and into Laos. It's too bad the hotel doesn't operate a restaurant or even a coffee shop up there.

Breakfast view. The Riverfront Hotel in Mukdahan has a great breakfast.

I lulled about my room for a bit, and then walked to the Mukdahan tower. It was about a half an hour walk, but I wasn't hurrying. The tower is the #1 attraction in Mukdahan. It has some history and cultural information about the area, but also has a viewing room.

On the road toward the tower. I have been told that I can ride my bike to the Buddha, and that it's an 18 km ride. I didn't feel like doing that today.

View from the tower, looking back toward town.

There are 8 unique tribes in the region. The costumes looked similar to me.

Except when there is a farang face in one.

This is a picture of a picture that was in the stairwell in the tower. Elephant roundup in Surin in 1955. Surin is about 200 km southwest of here.

I left the tower and wandered back to my hotel.

I passed through some of the IndoChinese Market.

Shopping in the lower part of the market. This area is below street level, under the river walk.

There are some useful things at the market, but mostly it is just junk. Junk!

I was still full from breakfast, and skipped lunch. I went back to the hotel, and tried watching a movie streaming Amazon video. I couldn't get it to work through the TV, which had a USB input, but it was fine on my tablet. Then the hotel staff came to clean my room, and I paused the movie. When I got back to it, Amazon had noticed I was not in the USA and wouldn't allow streaming. I was using a VPN that should have made it look like I was in California. I checked the IP address, and it did look like I was in CA. Then I read on line that Amazon blocks known IPs for VPN servers. Bummer. I wonder why it worked at all. I sent an inquiry to Expess VPN, and hope they'll have some advice.

I went out for an early dinner. The restaurant I chose is called "Wine Wild Why?" not far from the hotel. I had some deep fried veggies and shrimp. It was a nice change from rice or noodles. The restaurant doesn't actually serve wine, although apparently it did in the past and had a collection of wine bottles covering the counter. I know I was early for dinner, but I was the only one there. I ate outside on the river, and there was a nice breeze. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that breeze will become a tailwind for me tomorrow.

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