Stray dogs vs The Banana Pancake Lady

I remember Jessica, the international program coordinator, telling us during our introduction weekend that one thing she still hadn't gotten used to after all the time she'd spent in Nong Khai were the gangs of dogs roaming the streets at night ready to scare any poor farang who ventured out into the dark. During the day they would just lie on the sidewalk looking more dead than alive, but as soon as it got dark they immediately took every chance they got chasing whoever they say not holding a thai passport. That's what confused me, how could they tell we were foreigners from a long distance and start barking and running, whereas thai people could basically step on them and they wouldn't move! Do we really smell that different?! Some gangs were worse than others, and some dogs were really bad. They tried to jump and bite you as you were biking past them, and I particularly remember one little sidestreet, where some evil little furry thing made a really good attempt at taking a bite out of my leg. I wished for a second that I'd taken the rabies shot before I left, but fortunately he missed and I was gone with the wind. The same thing happened to a volunteer friend of mine, but that dog actually managed to rip a hole in his pants. After that it was war. Different methods such as waterguns, bb-guns and other things were discussed as options to keep the little (the little ones are always the worst) devils away. What turned out to be the best solutions was to always keep a handful of pebbles, or any kind of gravel with you ready to throw at the ones who got to close. I, on the other hand tried reverse psychology on them and would just bark back and start chasing them instead. It worked pretty good but resulted in some suspicious looks from thai people, so I stopped.

If the dogs represented Nong Khai's dark side, the Banana Pancake Lady definitely represented the good. Every night she would stand on the sidewalk on Prajak Road opposite Dee-Dee's, making her beloved pancakes. They were so popular among the volunteers that I suspect at least one or two dutch girls had to go through some kind of rehab to handle the loss once they got back home...
I wasn't that addicted though, normally I'm not a huge fan of sweet things after I eat, but I got to admit they were good. One whole pancake easily filled you up more than any thaifood would, so I'd stick to the small ones. When I came back from Koh Chang and Cambodia, she asked me where the other girls where, and I told them they already left Thailand. She asked me when I was leaving and told me I'd get a free one before I left. She actually remembered the week I was leaving even if I was to stressed to realize it, and sure, I got my free pancake.