Mon,-The Lady Next Door-entrepreneur of many trades-took us to the Kahom Sam Roi Yet National Park in Hua Hin. First we walked around a mangrove forest on a rickety elevated nature trail. We saw monkeys. One of the mothers held her orange baby and watched us through soulful eyes. We then drove to another place and hiked twice to get to the most beautiful cave in the world. It was a strenuous climb and descent of several miles but it was worth the effort. Pharay Anak Hon is the name of the cave. When we got back down the second mountain we drank a coke and a bottle of water and sat gratefully under the shade of a restaurant at the bottom. Then we hiked up and down the easier mountain. We thought it was a difficult mountain when we first hiked it but once we hiked the second mountain, the first mountain seemed almost easy. All a matter of perspective. We had lunch at a restaurant next to the bay and drank more coke and water and had a meal for 220 baht for the three of us which was $7.00 total. We bought some stone elephants at the shops there and met our Lady Next Door. When we got back to the retreat center, I went to the ocean with Janelle and Micah for awhile and then met Susan at the pool. We had a lovely supper of pizza and French fries and salad and sat with a couple who teach Bible School in Bangledesh. They told us that Bangla is one of the 7 most spoken languages of the world. Susan and I had another massage and I took an aleve and arnica afterwards because I think I'll be black and blue by tomorrow. (I was.) Packing up tonight for tomorrow's busy day.
Tues.-Slept 8 hours straight. Got up and went out to the beach in the dark around 5:45 and watched the sun rise. Took many pictures and gathered a handful of shells. Susan came out with her camera and went exploring and found a sand dollar. Then Micah and Janelle came out. Our taxi driver arrived at 7 instead of at 10 but he had driven there the night before from Bangkok to bring someone else to the area so he slept in the car. We paid for our stay at the retreat and packed up and left by 10. We went to the floating markets. The price was high and we decided not to go but they kept coming down in their price and finally we decided to go and it was pretty great. Susan bought some fruit including durian fruit and it tasted like nasty onion pudding. Now she can cross that off her bucket list. I can too, although it never was on mine. We bought some lunch from a floating boat that had a grill right on it. Chicken on a stick. At the coconut sugar plant I bought some patties of coconut sugar. We ate them like candy even though they were to be used in baking to sweeten a larger recipe. Tasted like maple sugar. Came back to Bangkok and the Guest House. Janelle picked up her bag and we added gifts to the bag they were holding for us there. The taxi driver took us to the train station. We had a 3 hour wait and used that time to buy some supper on the street, snacks and pastries for when we woke up in the train tomorrow morning, take a shower for 50 baht and purchase a hand towel to dry with and a little bar of soap, buy some tiger balm for $3 instead of the $10 it would be around here, eat mango ice cream and mint ice cream, eat Susan's chocolate filled chocolate donuts she bought for us, and feel queasy from the bad chicken we had bought outside. Janelle sat in the men's area while Micah showered which got kind of long and she regretted telling him to use up the whole bar of soap. We saw backpackers from different countries and once when I thought I was in someone's way and moved, he said in an Australian accent, "No worries." Got on the train around 8 and headed to Ubon Ratchechani, sleeping through the night.
Wed.-MED Joy and Pi Bae met us at the train station and took us to breakfast. Hurray for chicken cashew and rice and iced coffee for breakfast at the market. Then we went to the church to meet Pastor Joi and other friends and believers. We were still in a comfortable sleeping clothes. Pastor Joi and Phil had an emotional meeting. Johnny had poured his life into this man and you can feel Johnny when you are with him. They all were so happy to see Janelle and Micah again and tried to pick him up like they did when he was a baby. We went around the circle and shared and when Phil shared, he wept, and most of us joined him. We sat on that hard linoleum floor, praying, singing, sharing, weeping. I felt that profound sadness that someone had said I would feel. I felt it on the train earlier while we were coming into Ubon Ratchichani. (I don't think I am spelling the names of the towns quite right. Will have to check with Janelle when she comes back.) Then we went to the MED office. It was the same house where Johnny, Janelle, and Micah had lived when they were there. Joy, Janelle, and Micah, went out to the back woods area to see some trees that Johnny had planted and Micah stepped on a bamboo shoot coming up from the ground and cut his foot. Joy bandaged him up. A few days later, a piece came out.
We then went to Wed. market. We were stared at. People from villages would come out to this market to buy all that they needed to live. Phil bought some red silk to get some shirts made. The market was so crowded and people were riding motorcycles everywhere. Then we were brought back to the guest house where we would spend the next couple days while we were in Det Udom. There was an outdoor lobby between Janelle's room and ours and we sat around the table sometimes to read, eat, and talk.
Walked to the market down the street. Micah picked out a frog in a container and they split it and roasted it for him. We ate a restaurant where we cooked our meat over a hot grill and added vegetables to the broth simmering around it. Joy picked us up and took us to her sister's where Phil was measure for the silk shirts. They live in a beautiful village Joy's husband build their home. He is a carpenter. She lives next to her sister. Joy's husband cut open coconuts and poured out the juice for us to drink. We ate the soft insides as well. They sent one back for Susan. She reminds them of the main character in the Hunger Games movie because she showed them a picture of the deer she shot. Later, when we got back, Janelle and I walked around the block in the dark and bought water, soap, and popsicles. Went to bed before 7:30.
Thurs.-Slept until 6 in the morning. Put our laundry on the porch in bags to be sent out. Walked to breakfast with Janelle, Micah, and Susan. Had chicken cashew and rice. Joy picked us and we went to different villages and had two huge meals one right after the other. Pastor Joi and others were along and after the visits we went to a beautiful water falls. Another climb. Down, then up this time. Went to Pastor Joi's in the evening for a beautiful supper. I showed them how to put peanut sauce on apple slices which made them shudder but some of them were game and tried it and kind of liked it. I joked about dipping mint leaves into the peanut sauce and they nodded and said that was exactly what to do. It was really good. What a lovely home and lovely people. So much generosity and grace. One thing I remember here too is that they very carefully sliced their bananas into bite sized pieces instead of chumping right into them like I had done. Also, Pastor Joi showed us his rubber trees with a flash light. You get rubber from a tree just like you get sap from a maple tree for syrup.
Fri.-Woke up to tortured cat sounds. Went to the market by myself. On the way, Thai businessmen who were also staying there, invited me to sit down for coffee. They had complimentary coffee outside every morning right inside the guest house entrance. They wanted to know where I was from. I asked if they were teachers and they were. 'Good luck to you,' said the handsome one. And 'See you later, my love,' as I walked away. The locals seem startled by blonde haired blue eyed women. I bought bananas and applepear fruit and some waffles at the market. I filmed a lady dancing. Everyone smiles and is friendly and wants to try out their English. Susan made a point of always telling anyone who spoke in English that they spoke very good English. It seemed the ultimate compliment. They laugh when I speak -'sahwadikuh'-hello and goodbye, I think, with hands folded together and a little bow. They seem to laugh with you rather than laugh at you but I do think that man was laughing at me when I couldn't find 7 baht to pay for toothpaste. '7 baht' he said to the man next to him, shaking his head, and laughing. At one stand there were turtles in a container and bags with broken up turtle in them. I feel I have nothing to give these gracious people and everything to learn from them. Everywhere is simplicity and beauty. I want to say, 'Kop Koon Kah' -Thank you, thank you, over and over to everyone I meet.
Joy picked us up around 9 and we headed to Buntarick and they pulled off the road at the place where Johnny died. This was so hard. When we got to Palanchai we met with the believers in the village at the pavilion where I had gone with Janelle those 9 years ago where I met Mr. Som Pom-the man who had killed Johnny. We had drunk communion juice in shot glasses from WW11. Red Swastikas were etched on the bottom. This day, we shared, prayed, and danced. Afterwards, we drove up to the Laos border and had lunch at a nice restaurant and then went shopping at the market nearby. We bought a beautiful table cloth for Anne, some candy for Christmas, sweatpants for Susan, and jello candy like the kind Uncle Johnny would bring back. We stopped at a roadside broom and basket shop and some of our friends bought new brooms there. We stopped again where Johnny died and Phil got out and stood there for a brief moment and then shook his head like 'I can't yet believe it,' and got back in. Profound sadness. Later, we dropped off Pastor Joi, thinking it would be the last we would see him. Phil told him through Janelle that it was here that he had lost a brother and it was here that he had found his brother in him.
Back at the hotel we had some free time and we walked to the steak house and got some fries. Joy picked us up later and she and Bae hosted us at the MED office and we sat on the floor and had 'take out' from the same restaurant where we roasted the meat and simmered the vegetables over little coal grills. I had octopus for the first time. Micah is quite skilled in handling chopsticks and coached Phil on how to do it and Phil got pretty good at it too. Susan was already pretty good at it. I stopped trying. The restaurant would come back later and clean everything up. Joy said that she is not a good cook. That's why she ordered take-out.
I brought such casual clothes along-clothes I could leave behind to make room for purchases. The Thai ladies dress up much more elegantly than we do. They also take several showers a day. Being neat and clean is very important to them.
Sat.-Free morning. Got more dollars exchanged. Went to breakfast with Susan to the restaurant and she ordered chicken cashew with rice, having repeatedly saying the words Janelle had given to her, and the people knew exactly what she wanted! Several generations run the restaurant and the grandfather tried to get his little granddaughter to come to me but she wanted nothing to do with that idea. On our walk, I took some photos of children and then I would show it to them and they would laugh. Everyone smiles and laughs. We did some shopping and found some scarves and when we came back and showed them to Janelle, we went back out with her again. Phil read and Micah relaxed in his room. For lunch we all got chicken or pork with rice. We ordered iced drinks in large bags. The coffee was so strong my head was buzzing. The pink drink tasted like cotton candy. Later, Susan and I went to the Lotus Store which is like a large Walmart. We bought more things and she put a box together at the PO to send to her brother and family in Alberta. We took the tuk-tuk to the PO and then another tuktuk from the PO to the hotel. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle with a carriage attached so you can sit on benches facing each other and ride in the open air. It's a quicker way to get to where you want to go than walking several miles. It was after that we had our lunch that I wrote about above. Then we did more shopping. Joy picked us up and took us to Pi Baes for supper. She had a kettle of lots of little frogs simmering. We sat on the floor with their family and friends and had rice, sticky rice, frogs, chicken dishes, and sweet rice and corn wrapped in large green leaves. Before supper we watched Bae's sister and Joy plant mushroom spores on piles of tapioca scrapes. They fertilized it and placed hoops and plastic over it all and covered it with straw. Mushrooms will be growing in there by the time we get home to Va. That night, there was a beautiful sunset that I could see through the open shutters as we sat eating those little frogs. Bae's nephew and wife and daughter and son came over. Their son is about 8 years old. About a year ago he had an accident with a rope or a vine and it got wrapped around his neck and he was unconscious for 18 days. Before the accident he could speak with eloquence. Now he has trouble walking but he first crawled and now he is walking but needs help. He kept coming to Phil, Susan, and I. He especially liked Phil's black and white shirt with pictures from Paris on it. We left it with Joy when we left the area for her to give it to the little boy. The little guy's eyes look bright and normal. His mother reads to him. It has been such a hard thing for the family. Phil prayed for the father and it was good. They sent rice home with us and large bunches of green bananas. Some time today, Susan bought watermelon at a stand and two red pointy fruits because the lady didn't feel like selling her just one. It tasted awful. Joy said that Bae would be happy for the second one so we gave it to her. Janelle brought white chocolate covered pretzels from Miller's Store with her from Va. and she gave these out to the different host families when we visited. Susan is almost finished writing her 3,000 words. She will soon be able to say that she is officially graduated from her Sr. year. Writing was her last class to finish.
Sun.-I walked out to the street and got some chicken, watermelon, and pineapple and brought it back for breakfast. We packed up, leaving some clothes there for Joy to do with as she wants, checked out of the office-2,400 baht for several nights and two times of laundry-no security around money box. Honor system abounds here. Joy came and got us around 9:15 and we stopped at a roadside stand where she got halves of chicken grilled on a stick and some poppy seed crackers and we went to the aid's village for church. Johnny would go to them and we met some of the people who went with him and some he cared for. We had another time of sharing, praying, encouraging through the Word-1 Pet. 4:1-4. Joy encouraged them to persevered through the hard times. We had a meal with them. Their daughter made us rice sushi. Their other daughter runs a business called Stephanie's where she sells sushi. They wanted us to have all the sushi because they were used to it. One of the little boys-about two-took a special liking to Susan, and tried to talk her into taking him on a motorcycle ride. We brought one of the believers back to her home and it is there where Micah and Susan can say that they had the experience of riding a real water buffalo. Joy continued driving us towards the train station. We drove around the university where Johnny taught physics and Janelle taught ESL. Then we went to the hospital where Micah was born. Emergency C-section. Born blue. Then we went out to eat in Ubon Ratchichani and had three different dishes over rice. Also, got ice cream at the train station. Pastor Joi and others met us there to pray for us and help us get our luggage on the train. Another sweet farewell and an awareness that we will for sure see each other in heaven with no language barrier but hopefully, we will get to go back and see them again, after we learn more of their language and Joy learns more English. Susan and I changed into more comfortable clothing in the bathrooms at the station-have I mentioned squatty potties at all? We bought Pringles and other snacks. The train left at 6:30 and our beds were made by 6:45. I slept well during the night in the bottom bunk.
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