travelers not tourists

Late on the 7th we caught to train from Chiang-mai to Phitsanoluk. This had been our plan from the beginning of the trip, to go stay the last few days with Kor's parents in his home town. There had been a complication however, because his mom had been in Mexico during our first week in Thailand, until the Thai government demanded she come home - you guessed it, swine flu. So she flies home early and finds herself quarantined in the hospital with the other teachers and students she had been on the trip with. We got word of this and went straight to the US consulate in Chaing-mai to figure out if we should still go visit her. apparently she is under house arrest and is being carefully monitored by the government (has to report her temperature frequently throughout the day, etc.) We got the clear for the visit, and she spoke to her doctor and he said it was fine if we visited, so hopefully we don't run into issues with customs anywhere because of our stay with kor's mom :) ugh swine flu!

we tried to sleep on the train but we were in the very back and it was so bumpy and jerky because it was a speed train, none of us got any rest. it was the most uncomfortable ride of my life and i was freezing despite the thick blankets they provide... seriously, you are either sweating profusely or unbearably cold here, there is no happy in between. We arrived around 4am in Phitlo, were picked up by Kor's dad, went to his house, showered, and promptly went back to sleep.

the three of us woke up late the next day. Breakfast was wayy too much traditional Thai food (aka lots of fish, and pork and bbq meat). luckily there was also sweet sticky rice and mango! i could live off of that stuff :) Lo and I hung out a little in our room, savoring the air conditioning before we set off on the day's adventures. i know i always talk about the heat here, but northern Thailand has taken it to a whole new level... the heat/humidity is more extreme than anything we have experienced thus far. i have found that my thirst is an accurate indicator of how extreme the heat is. in the Philippines i was constantly parched during our first week or so there, despite chugging water, then as we acclimated we found ourselves sweating less and feeling less thirsty. in southern Thailand the sea breeze is cool and refreshing, and you can always cool down in the water or at night. i was rarely thirsty in the south and in fact, complained about being cold several times (makes me worry about going home, I'll be needing a parka for 70 degree weather). now that we're in the north, i am back to feeling constantly thirsty, and Kor rarely stops dripping with sweat - humidity sucks!

We went out to get coffee to ease Lo's headache and found a cute little shop that served amazing Thai treats along with their iced coffees. We got taro bread, which was delicious, and these bean curd pastries that were also really good. As we drank our coffee we did what we always do while passing time - play hearts!! seriously, we never get sick of it. after Lo lost (we usually play to 100) in an interesting display of idiocy (she would agree... Kor threw down the queen without thinking, and Lo was so caught up with laughing at him for the stupid mistake that she threw down the Ace of spades... if you know anything about hearts, those are both very stupid moves), we were about to start up a new game when an old lady sitting near our table started to speak to Kor in Thai. apparently we aren't allowed to play hearts in a coffee shop because it is "a bad example for the children", and according to this woman the coffee shop could get in trouble with the police if they caught us playing cards. we were a little appalled that a non-betting card game could be so taboo, it's not like we were throwing down baht as we drank our iced coffee. i guess technically we do bet on the games, dependent entirely on Kor's performance: if kor wins he earns an hour free of nagging (during this hour we must also say "please" or "ka" after every sentence we speak to him to show respect. He thinks I am too sarcastic with this rule... i suppose using please at inappropriate/illogical times could seem sarcastic :) but I do it in the most genuine tone). If kor loses at hearts (which happens the most frequently), he treats us to Roti (the Thai pancake that Lo and I beg for daily)... but this betting is beside the point! Hearts should not be banned in coffee shops! either way we were given the boot....

Our next stop was the national parks about an hour away from Phitsanoluk. We were in search of waterfall but somewhat disappointed with what we found. Because it is May we are about as far away from the rainy season as possible (because it is about to start but hasn't yet), so the waterfalls were more of trickles than waterfalls and the water was a muddy brown that discouraged us from wanting to swim. Lo and I did make an attempt to walk across one of the first rivers, and we were doing fine in about ankle-deep water, until Lo took her next step and was suddenly up to her hip in the murky water - a drop off obscured by the brown water. we were laughing so hard I think we got a bigger kick out of it than all the locals watching from the bank of the river. maybe. (we make the locals laugh a lot... a couple having a picnic thought it was pretty funny when i stopped near them, looked down and realized i was standing in the middle of tons of little ants, yelped, and then jumped to an ant free rock nearby. great, get a kick out of the poor travelers).

Another waterfall, also somewhat disappointing. we bought some mystery fruit Kor couldn't identify from a lady with no teeth on the side of the road, delicious!! (the fruit, not the lack of teeth). then we went to another spot where we found the coolest plant in the world!! I am serious. this plant looks like a tiny fern, well, imagine those type of leaves (many leaves growing off of a stem), but very small, maybe only an inch or two long for the whole thing, and then three to five of these grow out from a central point (are you confused yet? :) and if you pet the plant - like run your finger down the stem - the little leaves on either side respond by immediately closing up. it is remarkable!! while Lo and I were intently touching the leaves and watching them respond while filming the whole thing, Kor decided it would be funny to yell "snake!", at which point Lo and I, totally convinced we were about to be attacked, screamed and basically flew away from where we had been standing, while the video is still being taken, only to realized Kor was joking.... made for a pretty hilarious video. Then i got stung by something on my foot that sent shooting pain through the area (I am so tired of being bitten/stung by jungle creatures - fortunately this wasn't as bad as the huge ant)

We got back to Kor's house in time to change and leave for the Buddhist ceremony that happens only three times a year (good timing on our part!). Kor's dad handed us each a candle, a lotus plant, and three sticks of incense (one for Buddha, one for his teachings, and one for his followers). The cool thing about Buddhism is that you can practice it even if you aren't Buddhist.... and that's just what we did. We went with Kor's dad to the temple where Kor lived when he was a monk (yes, kor wore the robe and shaved his head, and says the food was really good.... we've seen photo evidence of his time as a monk). We lit our candles and incense, Lo and I burned ourselves about four times each in the process of the ceremony. Walked around the temple three times and placed our candles and incense at the front of the temple while we prayed for good luck... we went inside and were blessed by a monk, and we did the prayer to Buddha that Kor's dad taught us. It was pretty cool... dinner, Roti, back to the house to watch THE BEACH. This is the movie with Leonardo Dicaprio that is filmed on the beach where we camped the night. If you want to see where I watched the sunset, swam, and spent the night, watch these movie. there are so many great shots of Maya Bay, it is just like when we were there!! (minus the village of people in the movie). The three of us really enjoyed seeing in play out, and we were joking about similarities between characters in the movie and people we had met here... particularly those characters staying at Tongsai (the hippie beach I talked about a few blogs back).