Fireflies and Kratongs: A trip to Ratchaburi

We ate an awesome lunch at school Saturday (oct. 31) and hopped into the wan which began the 2+ hour drive to Ratchaburi where we were going with Oil, Dr. Absorn, Absorn's niece (Beam), Beam's friend (Meow) and the other Americans (katie, ryan, emily, josie). kind of a long and hot ride, but we arrived at Dr. Absorn's sister's house in one piece.

The plan was to stay at a hotel in Ratchaburi and visit an evening market and a morning market, but after eating an amazing snack of fresh fruit Dr. Absorn's brother-in-law offered his home as a place for us to stay. We soon found out the definition of Thai hospitality as the family fed and cared for us as if we were their own. He was really nervous that their home wasn't as nice as the hotel even though it was really nice, had a/c in the bedrooms and was free! Dr. Absorn had 2 nephews (Boom and Bang--awesome) who lived at the house along with her sister, and her brother-in-law's (Yop) sisters and mother. The grandma was serious straight out of a national geographic special on thai people living in rice paddies: she was really old, missing most of her teeth and always smiling. she kinda hobbled around the house and even did some laps arond the living room with her walker.

The house was sort of like a huge airplane hanger that was redone inside with a huge open common space and rooms on two floors. We ate all our meals on mats on the floor and tried really hard to communicate with everyone. Boom is a junior in high school and spent a year as an exchange student in Milwaukee. Yop was really eager for us to help him practice his english, so I tried my best to talk to him (forced convo is always a little awkward at first.)

Anyway we went to Amphawa which is a really popular evening floating market with Thai people (we were some of the only foreigners there). It was loaded with authentic crafts and amazing food vendors. It's common in Thai culture for elders to pay for a lot of the extras on trips and such so we were kinda spoiled with food: kabobs, squid eggs (actually pretty good), thai shwarma, etc. AWESOME! we even dared to have our food nit noy phet (a little spicy) which is still hot by our standards. That night we went on a long boat ride that turned out to be an hour long (for only 60 baht= today's more bang for your baht deal) which took us around a bunch of canals in the dark. The coolest part was that a bunch of trees were literally covered in fireflies (it looked like some had christmas lights flashing).

When we got back some people showered, but I went on a walk around the property with Boom and Yop and Yop's sister. We sat around talking in a beautiful pavilion that Yop built and just took in the night air. Yop kept asking questions via Boom (to help him speak more) and after about 15 min he asks "are you coming back to Thailand after you leave?" and I told him I thought it would be great to come back and visit and he goes "please know that anytime you are in Thailand you stay here." I'd seriously known this family for less than 6 hours and they already offered their home to me.



We went back inside and had some late nite boiled rice/veggies, despite not being hungry but we had to be polite. Then we went onto the deck and made kratongs to celebrate Loy Kratong--a Thai festival where you make kratongs (basically miniature floats made out of banana tree trunks, banana leaves and various flowers) You put candles and incense on the floats and light them, making a wish and asking the water goddess to wash away your sins. It was a really cool thing to partake in with the Thais and we felt honored they included us. Josie and I made a kratong that may or may not have ridden the short bus to school, but we were proud of it! We launched them into the pond by the pavilion and went to bed shortly after. The whole family gave up their rooms for us to sleep in and they slept in mosquito netting tents in the common room-we felt really bad, but they were so excited to have visitors.

The next morning we woke to a breakfast feast of boiled rice, noodles, veggies, fruit, etc. We all piled into Yop's pick up and Thim's honda (all 11 of us) and went to the floating market at Ratchaburi. We all took turns riding in the back of the truck (some of us got to ride in the cab), but Yop insisted I sat in the cab with him, Boom and Bang. I think he liked that I spoke English to Boom, but nevertheless I didn't complain about the a/c. Ratchaburi wasn't as cool of a market as Amphawa as it was much more touristy with many of the same things for sale in most of the shops. Still cool to see vendors pull up to the canal walks with wares/food to sell.

We then drove to a really awesome temple that was built into/surrounded by a tree. Inside was a golden buddha statue where many people were paying their respects as it was a holiday weekend. The grounds were also covered in Muay Thai (thai boxing) statues-not sure about their purpose. After our excursion we had a great lunch (probably 8-10 different dishes) and said our goodbyes. We waited around for a little bit and tried talking to the grandma which was a hilarious mess as we had no idea was this lady was talking about. Anyway on the way to meet the wan to take us back to BKK Yop turned to me and (via Boom) asked me to come back to his home for Christmas :) I can't get over how amazingly kind these people are and how welcoming; they worked so hard to make our stay memorable.