Welcome to Chok Chai

I woke up the next day…and realized I was in Thailand!!! What…?!

And after getting ready, I walked outside into the bright sun. Now that it was day, I could take in the place we were at a little better. It was beautiful! I couldn’t stop staring. We had ended up in a little paradise. Though it was a small town deep in Thailand, I really couldn’t have asked for a better way to gain a Thailand experience. When you’re in a foreign country, in my opinion, the BEST way to have an adventure there is to share an experience with someone of that country. And we were doing JUST that. If you can’t stay or travel with someone native to the country, or someone that has lived there for a long time, or both, at least try and make some friends. You WON’T regret it; you see a completely different side of the country that you could never see just being a tourist. The way I see it, simply being a tourist in a foreign country is no different than going to a museum or an amusement park. Doing fun stuff in the country is something you can basically do anywhere. Seeing the sights is unique to each country, but when that’s all you’re doing…SEEING…it’s basically like looking at a pretty picture. It’s the people that take you deeper into understanding what exactly that country is all about, what makes it tick. Learn their points of views, their backgrounds, their stories. Ask them questions about how they live their lives and what parts of that country are important to them. If you only know YOUR perspective of a foreign country, and not a native person’s perspective, you haven’t gained an understanding of the country.

So I walked outside and saw my motel building, which was painted a beautiful terracotta color. And the sun was blazing overhead and nearby the area was filled with banana leaves and palm branches and all kinds of tropical greenery, it made for a perfect picture. So naturally I took a few.

We walked over to the big house and had breakfast with Kyle’s uncle and O. Then we went for a drive around the area. The area is a small town in the midst of a bunch of farmland. There are mostly fields of rice and tapioca around…those are the two most popular crops I’ve seen here. Occasionally there is a single kwai or a herd of kwai chilling out in the distance. There are many trees, and we drive along a dirt pathway for much of the time. And the many buildings we pass all have the little house temples somewhere nearby them. We pass the occasional wat.

Breakfast!! These are actually duck eggs in the omelette...we had a lot of eggs during our time here, and they were all duck eggs. They don't taste too different from chicken eggs. But these here were fluffy and really fresh! Often they were just collected on the same day! Often the chicken we ate was fresh from the coop too.

Rice fields, endless rice...

This is rice too...you see it in different stages...some of them were filled with water

This one was filled with water...rice needs to soak like that.

As we drive around I am drawn to staring at the people. I just love looking at them and the diversity of their looks. This is a place completely unlike China, a place where there are many skin tones, face shapes, and body shapes. I myself didn’t feel like I stood out as much anymore. (More on this in a later post.)

The area was beautiful, with houses painted with bright colors or traditional carvings or something, but as O mentioned, “We do what we can with the little that we have.” And they most certainly did…it was just absolutely gorgeous.

So many beautiful colors!!

This is a small reservoir...there were many of these around the area.

Soccer!!!!

How many times will you see a pink and green house???

Flowers at a nursery

Pottery at a nursery

Soo...many...colorssss

From the moment I stepped out of my motel, I was in a surreal trance that I didn’t shake myself of until a couple days later. I tried my best to keep it real though…but I was so struck by the beauty of this place. (I still haven’t shaken it off, and I won’t until I’m gone.) The area is teeming with plant life, flowers and trees and fruit. There are bright colors everywhere, from the roofs and walls of houses to the bright green of the land. And throughout the land, there is traditional Thai art and architecture. It was something out of a movie, or a dream…it’s hard to imagine with the hustle and bustle of regular life that such places exist.

Later we drove down the main road and grabbed some of what I'd call Thai-style hot pot. It was beautiful the way it was cooked...much more interesting that a simple stainless steel pot...and it tasted delicious too. Then we went home.