i don't really know what we did today... oh wait, I remember!! we took all of the food that Kor's mom had prepared and we brought it to the temple and offered it to the monks. She went all out, not only did we bring them like 1000 baht cash and a bunch of incense and flowers, but we also brought them a huge platter of apple-celery fruit (well, that's what Lo and I call it because that is what it tastes like), and a fruit from the lychee family, so delicious. and four containers of cooked food like soup and rice and curry, etc. and finally, a huge bucket with tons of random things from bottled water to toilet paper to snack food. Monks have it good. Kor talks about his good eats during his time as a monk, and there is no shortage of plump monks in Thailand. After we offered our things and Kor repeated prayers and we prayed for good things and happiness in life, we drove to a communist camp. I know, kind of contrasting activities, but it's what we did.
Here's the deal with Communist Camp... When the Communist party was in Thailand, not that long ago, it is where their home-base was, in the jungle area outside of Phitlo. What I learned from Kor (and Lo's bible - the lonely planet tour book), is that they were there all the way until 1981. They couldn't be successfully taken by the Thai government because they had superior strategic terrain in the jungle (Kor thought that was really cool). We visited a plaque with the names of those who had fought in the hills, the soldiers that had died trying to take down the communist party. We even saw a heli-pad that reminded from when their camp was there... The communists had recruited tons of students and they were powerful in their numbers, but the government told the students if they returned to society they would be forgiven and not punished, and all the students responded by abandoning the Communists and that is how they lost their power. Kor even said one of his teachers was once almost killed because the Communists, believing in "equality", sought to kill anyone who was educated. There is your kind of random, probably only somewhat accurate, history of the Communist Party in Thailand.
We went on an adventure to see a view of the jungle that our tour book suggested, but all we ended up finding was a bunch of random graves marked by log fences, where some of the communists were buried. It was getting late and the locals seemed to feel that it was impossible to drive the curvy roads in the dark (I don't know about them, but our car has headlights so...), therefore we decided to head back to Kor's house just to be on the safe side. Part of the reason we opted to play it safe is because they drive on the other side of the road in Thailand. It has been quite an adjustment for Kor to remember that he needs to go to the right side of the car to get to the driver's seat, and he needs to stay on the left side of the road when driving. No joke, countless times on our trip Kor will turn onto a new street and start driving on the wrong side of the road, heading into oncoming traffic, and Lo and I have to yell at him to remind him to swerve left and get on the correct side of the street - Terrible!
When we got home is when the real event of the day/night occurred. So we had just turned off the computer and we were all drifting off into a peaceful sleep when we hear kor's dad yell something from downstairs. Lo and I don't understand the Thai of course, as we can only say/understand greetings, "thank you", and "delicious" in Thai, so we aren't phased (yet), but Kor responds by jumping out of bed and taking off for the door. just as he is about to run out in silence we say "kor, what is it?" and he yells - as a side note: I don't understand why we had to ask for this piece of information and he didn't just volunteer it the minute he heard his dad say it - "the house is on fire!!" then runs away. Lo and I jumped from the bed frantically, our hearts instantly pounding, and ran down the stairs after him, expecting smoke and flames and the kitchen to be on fire or something. but we got downstairs and there was nothing, no fire, no smoke, nothing. but kor's dad was still yelling fy-my! fy-my! and his mom and dad are running around as Lo and I stand there totally confused... and then they run into the driveway and we all follow, still baffled by the situation, and we're standing there in the humid darkness and that is when we realize, it is the neighbor's telephone pole that is on fire! Like the fuse box had exploded and now there were huge flames lapping up the wooden pole next to the house. At this point Kor's mom was calling 911, we were trying to wake the neighbors by yelling, Kor's dad was still running around wildly, and Lo and I were wondering if, with the tree so close to the telephone pole, and the house touching the tree, everything might go up in flames in a matter of minutes! soon the neighbors were awake and Kor was helping one of the neighbors throw dirt on the fire (it was funny because the neighbor would chuck some dirt and the flames would go down a little, then Kor would chuck some dirt and the fuse box would explode... it went on like that for several minutes - oh Kor, always fanning the fire, even when he's trying to put it out).
side note to this story, I saw a fire fly. it was the first one i have ever seen in my entire life, with a blue glowing butt, and I thought it was soo cool! i guess it came to check out the action. The fire dept eventually came, at this point lo and i were back in bed, happily falling asleep in the air conditioned room, knowing that our house was not on fire. until the fire dept decided to turn off the electricity in the neighborhood while they fixed the malfunctioning fuse box. you'd be amazed how fast a cold room can turn unbearably hot. until the power came back on we had a lot of trouble sleeping (how did we do it in the Philippines with no AC for a month??!) Although, in defense of our inability to handle the heat here, Kor's parents keep on commenting on how it is unseasonably hot right now.
Our last full day in Phitsanoluk and we kept with our usual morning routine. Wake up, big breakfast, went to coffee at Kor's friend's coffee shop, updated our blogs a little, went to lunch with Kor's friend, played hearts with the pilot friend of Kor's who used to pick on him when they were kids, then we went to get two hour aroma oil massages. This was a perfect activity for our final day in Phitlo. We were told to shower, then got our oil massages, then sat in the steam room, and then showered again... It was the cleanest I felt on the entire trip.
We drove to Bangkok the next day and made it there in time to do some final shopping for souvenirs. Then we met Kor's dad for dinner and a show, the best in Thailand according to the advertisement, performed on the highest stage in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The show was really cool, there were tons of performers and they acted out the history of Thailand. The stage even had a river with boats and elephants, goats and chickens were in a few of the acts. The performers also "flew" which was very entertaining. It was an elaborate show and a great end to our trip.
Here's a side note about parking in Thailand... if the nose-in spots are all full, the Thai people will parallel park behind those cars. it looks like they are blocking in the cars parked in legal spaces but in fact the parallel parked cars are in neutral with the e-brake off so it is easy to roll the car that is blocking you forward or backward so that you can get out of your spot! easy way to make more parking spots, although Lo and I were very confused when we first saw this and didn't understand how it worked.
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