After a five hour bus ride from Phuket Mom, Roger, Neils and I arrived back in our Thai home town, Nakhon Si Thammarat. We were picked up by my boss, Waradee, and a friend and taken to a little restaurant for a quick snack. We were then dropped off at our house for the evening. Neils and I gave Mom and Roger a quick tour of our humble abode and let them settle into the guest bedroom. We then took care of some errands before bringing home dinner from the place where we normally get food. By that time, everyone was pretty much ready to call it a night.
The next morning was kind of lazy, Neils and I ran to town to try to rent a car but had no luck. Luckily, Waradee had contacted a guy who owns a van that brings kids out to Satit. We agreed that this sounded like the best mode of transportation for us so Waradee sent him to our house complete with a tour list and a friend who spoke a little English. We visited the Nakhon Si Thammarat City Museum, grabbed some lunch at a noodle place, picked up our translator's daughter, Pangpond, who spoke even more English, visited Wat Phra Mahathat, which was really nice to do with our own little tour guide and then visited some silver shops. After that we thought we would go home and take a nap, but that didn't really work out so the van ended up coming right back and taking us back to town to have dinner with Waradee. We ate at one of the best seafood places in town and had a nice long chat. After that the van took us home and we all collapsed.
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| Mom and Roger outside Nakhon Si Thammarat City Museum |
The next morning, bright and early, the van was back to pick us up. We headed to town for a Dim Som breakfast with Waradee. Waradee then jumped in the van with us and we spent the next several hours visiting, tailors, dress makers and fabric shops. Roger had a suit and silk shirt made and my mom had a jacket and silk pajamas made. That took all morning, so our plan to visit the Khiriwong Village was scrapped. We headed to lunch and Waradee went to pick up her husband, Benyaar. We all met up again after lunch and piled into the van and this time we headed out for the cape of Thailand. We drove for about 1.5 to 2 hours while Pangpond (who Roger called Bob) and Roger harassed each other a little bit. We arrived at the cape of Thailand, which is pretty much flooded during the rainy season. We were directed to a little sign that showed a map of where were were and Pangpond told us that when it's not so rainy we could walk right out the very tip of the cape. We were able to climb up a to a little look out tower from which we could see parts of Vietnam off in the distant ocean. It was pretty amazing. On our way back we stopped at a little beach side restaurant where Benyaar treated us to some absolutely amazing seafood and where Pangpond and her mom secretly buried Roger's shoes in the sand. They were very excited that they were able to 'get him' so well. After dinner we headed back to town, everyone was exhausted. We dropped Waradee and Benyaar off at their car and then the van made its way out to our house where everyone pretty much fell asleep as soon as they hit the pillow.
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| View from the lookout tower at the Cape of Thailand |
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| Roger doing his karate kid pose outside the beach side restaurant |
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| Roger and his sand covered shoes. |
Bright and early the next morning the school van was honking outside our house to take us to the airport. Waradee and Benyaar met us there and waited with us until we could board the plan. In Thailand they have a traditional show using shadow puppets to tell about Thai culture and history. Benyaar bought the joker shadow puppet and gave it Roger as a departing gift, making sure to explain who it was and saying that his new name was Roger.
The Nakhon Si Thammarat stop was one of my favorites, because Mom and Roger got to see first hand how wonderful the Thai people are. They experienced first hand the overwhelming kindness that I've only been able to tell other people about. Waradee, Benyaar, the van driver, our tour guide and Pangpond made this stop more memorable than it would have been if we had just rented a car.
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