On Friday I had the day off work, so Noi and I rode our bikes to Bo Sang. It was only about four miles, but I swear the seat of my bike is made of concrete or something, so my butt was really feelin it. But holy cow--it's so gorgeous here. Every time we pass by the vast yellow rice paddies, Sting's song "Fields of Gold" plays through my head and I feel like I'm in heaven.
Fields of Gold--pictures don't do it justice
In Bo Sang we did some smoothie-sipping and some souvenir-shopping, and then we rode back home. It was incredibly hot so we stopped by Tesco Lotus Express for some a/c action. Seriously, I don't know what I would do without Tesco Lotus and 7/11. We didn't want to go back into the heat, so we stayed in there for at least half an hour, reveling in the blessedly cold air.
After we got home we showered and then went into the city and saw MIB III at the theater. I wasn't a fan at first, but by the end I'd warmed up to it a little. After the movie we caught a red truck to Gat Luang (the big market) and then a yellow truck to Doi Saket market, where we met up with the parentals, who took us the rest of the way home. It started POURING and by the time we got home we had to slosh through ankle deep water to get inside. But I loved it. The rain here rocks, because it's warm! Noi kept asking, "Are you tired?" and when I said "No" she would say, "You are a strong woman." It was so cute.
Saturday morning I was awakened by the dog barking at 3:50 am. Turns out, the dog was barking because the rot dang was here to pick me up--he wasn't supposed to be here til 4:30! So I hurried and got dressed and packed my stuff for our day-trip down to Sukhothai. We met up with everyone at our facilitators' apartment in the city, and were on the road at about 6. It took 4 hours to get to Sukhothai, but we had a great time in the (air-conditioned) van talking and laughing. I was mesmerized by the scenery--blue mountains ringed in mist and thousands and thousands of tall green trees.
At Sukhothai we rented bikes and rode around the ruins. I can't really give you the history of the place--but it was fascinating, and so old. There were ancient statues of Buddha everywhere, and I felt like I was in another time period. There were butterflies everywhere, and I had a blast racing them down the road. Racing butterflies! It was so fun.
Sukhothai
After riding around for half the day, we stopped for lunch at a place called The Coffee Cup. It took awhile for everyone to order, receive, and eat their food, so afterward we just toured the museum and one more statue and then hauled our exhausted (and sore) selves back to the vans for our 4-hour ride home.
Right now it's Sunday night. This morning I caught a ride into the city with my family, and Amanda, Meredith, Britt and I got (another) Thai massage. Then I split for church, and when I got there, this white guy sat down across from me and said, "We followed you here." I said, "Uh, that's kind of creepy," but then he explained that he and his friend had been looking for the church and then they saw my BYU backpack and decided to follow me in hopes that I would lead them to the church building. And I did! I thought it was so great--right place, right time! Erin and I sat by them in sacrament meeting and then agreed to meet up later.
I went to the English Sunday school, where we had an awesome lesson by this lady from Denmark with an equally awesome accent. Then we had Relief Society and afterward Erin and I just chilled and waited for her friend to get out of his meeting. At 5:30ish we headed down to the Walking Street Market ( I LOVE that place) and met up with the guys we'd met earlier. It was cool to talk with them--they're doing a month-long trip through Southeast Asia, and I wish we would have had more time to hang out. It's so fun to meet people here.
I had to peace out early though because I was supposed to meet up with my family at 7:00. I got my own rot dang to Gat Luang just fine, but once there I realized that the green truck I was supposed to take wasn't going to leave for awhile, and it was already 6:45. My family was already at our meeting place, so Meredith called and tried to explain to them where I was, but there was no translator where a translator was definitely needed, so I just told them to meet me at Doi Saket market to save time. I hopped on the yellow truck that was about to leave, but I forgot to check the sign that said which truck I was on, so the whole time I was paranoid that I'd gotten on the wrong one, and I must have looked really freaked out, because after awhile the girl next to me touched my arm and said, "Excuse me mam, you worried?" I said, "Yes, this is going to Doi Saket market, right?" and she responded, "Yes, Doi Saket market. You don't need to worry."
It was so sweet I almost cried. She relieved a little bit of my fear, but by the time I finally met up with my family I was about to burst from the tension in my body. I said "I'm sorry" to my family in Thai, but they just laughed and said, "Mai pen lai," as always. They are so awesome. Then we came home and had dinner and now I'm here, writing my blog. But don't forget to keep in mind that this is probably only 22% of what's happened in the past three days. I wish there was a way to record everything.
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