Katie and Nicole . . .Thailand 2007/2008

Sawasdee Kah Friends and Family,

After almost a week of basking in the sun at Koh Chang we were ready to be on the move again and had plans to meet up with Nicole's aunt, Pi Tdoong Tding and her friend Pi Bui who live just outside of Bangkok in Nakhom Pathom. Transportation to make this happen went something like this: songtaew - ferry - songtaew - bus - taxi - taxi! (with one stop at Leung Sadit's, our homebase, in Bangkok). Hooooweee! - are we getting familiar with the public transportation system! After resting overnight in Bangkok, Nicole made plans with Pi Bui for us to meet up together in Nakhom Pathom. This wasn't necessarily an easy task. With Nicole's minimal Thai and Pi Bui's minimal English, we felt a bit sketchy that we were all on the same page. Thankfully, Nicole's mom is always willing to be an overseas translator so Nicole made a few calls to her and she called Pe Bui to confirm our plans. Whew!

After a few morning phone calls, Pi Bui found us waiting at a crocodile/elephant zoo (our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong spot) and took us back to her and Pi Tdoong Tding's lovely home. Pi Tdoong Tding, who is a very gregarious and cheery person, was cooking all kinds of food for us to eat. Unfortunately, we were already stuffed with pineapple and batangos (fried dough) and tried to politely decline the offer of more food. We sipped tea and coffee instead while we chatted with the sweet and kind Pi Bui. After a bit of chatting Pi Tdoong Tding entered from the kitchen with 2 plates served up for us, not quite heaping but a healthy serving size. Pi Bui informed us it was pork liver and rice. Already full and slightly squeamish, but not wanting to be rude we looked at each other and slowly started to work away at our plates full of liver. We each finished about half of our servings before we had to announce that we were too full to possibly eat another bite, but admitted to each later that as far as pork livers go, it WAS deliciously flavored, despite the odd new texture. Katie was quite impressed that Nicole didn't completely bury her liver pieces under the rice mound seeing that Nicole is very particular about food and had definitely never eaten liver. When in Thailand, do as the Thais do!

Next it was into the car for our drive to Cha-am Beach, a weekend getaway beach for Thai folks living in Bangkok and Nakhom Pathom. It seems that when Thai folks take us anywhere it always involves a couple random stop-offs here and there before actually heading to a destination. This trip proved the same. Our first stop was at a temple with a very beautiful, large Chedi (stupa) which we quickly gazed at from a distance and snapped a few photos before hopping back into the car. It wasn't until later that we realized this is actually the tallest Buddhist monument in the world (Pi Bui hadn't informed us of this) and a significant landmark during WWII. Our next stop was at a produce market where Pi Tung Ting bought us some Somm Oh. which is similar to a grapefruit but bigger and not quite as bitter. Delicious! Our last stop was at another temple, the site of one of Pi Tdoong Tding's building projects (she is an architect and builder). The engineer and other workers fawned over Nicole's luk-kreung "beauty" and farang status while Nicole asked a few curious questions about where the cement gets poured into the foundation etc. (she is now concerned with these things, after all her learning at PunPun Then it was off to Cha-Am!

We slept most of the way to the beach and were there before we knew it. It was apparent that we were close when Pi Tdoong Tding used her phone to call a restaurant and order some crab fried rice, which Nicole had mentioned in passing that she LOVED. From the car we could see that the beach was loaded with Thai people, particularly families and children. There where tons of large umbrellas crammed together where Thai folks were sitting in the shade relaxing, eating and drinking. The ocean was a bit rough but full of Thai kids and teenagers swimming fully clothed (modest types-they don't usually wear swimsuits here) and there were jet skis pulling large inflated rockets that sat about 10 wailing and giddy kids on them. There were only a few white folks (well, red actually) and they stuck out quite clearly in their skimpy swimwear and as the only sunbathers on the whole beach. We drove all the way along the beach until we came to our sweet hotel and restaurant. Our crab fried rice was waiting for us, but Pe Tdoong Tding and Pe Bui encouraged us to order more, along with their favorite picks. Our meal consisted of crab fried rice, a large plate of crabs, fried fish, curried crab, and a Thai omelet. Pi Tdoong Tding had also ordered beer for her and Katie and fancy coconut shakes for Pi Bui and Nicole. We stuffed ourselves senseless and Pi Tdoong Tding upheld the apparent Thai tradition of keeping your glass of alcohol full at all times. OH what hosts they were!! Pi Tdoong Tding amused herself by watching us struggle with our crabs, which we are not used to cracking and eating! Come on, we're from the United States, where meat comes in the form of a 'nugget' or a fish stick. We don't know how to eat fresh animals! Pi Tding assisted us with a lesson and then cracked many open for us, grinning wildly at her ability to free large pieces of the crab meat with little effort.

After lunch we rested a bit in the fancy beach-house that the Aunties got for us and then headed down to the water. It was full of tiny crabs and strange tubular sea-plants so we walked for a while trying to find a spot to swim that wouldn't be too funky on our feet. We took a short dip, but after Katie spotted a jelly fish swimming nearby (she had been warned by her mother to beware of jellyfish), we decided to explore the beach instead. We found a near by tide pool and waded around finding many interesting creatures. There were big and teeny hermit crabs living in various beautiful shells, and we spent some time fishing out pairs from the water and racing them. We also discovered beautiful blue star fish with many tiny wiggling feet on their undersides, live sand dollars, big crabs that moved to fast to catch, and jelly fish we steered clear of. Nicole was like a child squeaking at the sight of every new creature.

Cha-Am was wonderful. As usual, we were spoiled by Nicole's family and gave them many thanks. The Aunties stayed in another room for the first night and then left the next day, handing us loads of cash to pay for everything we needed until we left. So kind so kind. We had so much fun with them, especially during our second meal where Pi Dtoong Dting convinced the server to sell her beers wrapped in newspaper so that Katie could have some the next evening (it was election week-illegal to sell alcohol). Pi Dtoong Dting and Pi Bui are a lovely and complementary pair, and we only wish that we could communicate even more deeply with them!

The weekend was full of rest, sunshine and Fox News. We had a t.v. in our room and felt obligated to learn about what was happening in the U.S. primaries, but the only English news offering was from the detested Fox News, complete with the O'Reilly show. It was gross, but we felt slightly more informed about what was going on with Hillary and Barack! Even though our minds were churning with interesting political dramas, we still managed to have a very peaceful visit to Cha-Am.

More stories soon! We miss all your beautiful faces and will be home in less than a month!
Nicole and Katie

P.S. Don't forget to check our picture gallery and old blogs for new photos.