NAKHON SI THAMMARAT - An impoverished couple journeyed more than 1,300 kilometres over 14 days from their flooded house in Si Sa Ket in the Northeast in a futile bid to find shelter with their son in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Village headman Thongchai Jaisabai came across Olarn Khadkaew, 56, and his wife Sao Lamnuay, 42, on their clapped out motorcycle and sidecar, chugging slowy up an incline on the Nakhon-Surat Road about 2.30am on Monday, in Moo 10 village of tambon Khuan Thong, in Khanom district .
Mr Olarn was driving the motorbike. His wife, an amputee with only one leg that had become seriously inflamed, was riding pillion. The sidecar held the few belongings they had salvaged from their swamped home in Khun Han district of Si Sa Ket.
The couple told Mr Thongchai they had left there 14 days ago and travelled about 1,300 kilometres to find a son they believed to be working in Nakhon Si Thammarat, hoping to take shelter with him.
Having failed to find him, they were now making their way back.
Mr Olarn said their son was a construction worker. They did not have a mobile phone number for him, and when they went to the place where they had previously met him, he was not there.
"We did not take a bus because my wife is sick, and had a leg amputated. I must hold her up, and it is difficult for her to go to the toilet. So we travel on the motorcycle," he said.
He thanked southern people for helping them during their search, with food and some money for fuel. They planned to stop in Bangkok, where they hoped to find another son. And if not, they would go back to Si Sa Ket.
Mr Thongchai said the couple would not stay in a room he wanted to arrange for them, saying they needed to travel as fast they could, and continue their search.
Then Mr Olarn and his ailing wife resumed their so far fruitless quest.
Mr Thongchai hoped people along the way would find it in their hearts to help them.