The countryside life

The lazy farang woke up late again this morning and found that everyone had gone to work except father. Luckily I had been left some sweet sticky rice for breakfast so I could relax and plan my day. I decided to head to the school first and meet some of the teachers. The school is only a 15 minute walk from the house, and the weather was not too hot yet, so I was looking forward to a nice walk. However, most Thai people cannot understand that a farang would want to walk anyway. Walking as far as the end of the road is quite rare. Father asked me to take the bicycle, but I said I would walk. So he decided he should take me by car. As I was trying to explain that I liked walking he had already got the car ready. I feel so lazy going to the school by car! Especially as I am eating so much, I need as much exercise as possible. :)

At school I met a few of the teachers from last year and one teacher asked me to join her for lunch at her house, with her daughter. It was not even 11am and we were already preparing to eat lunch! I enjoyed some delicious vegetarian 'pad thai' that was prepared for me and then a table full of desserts! I had sticky rice — my second of the day — and mango which was really good. By the time I had finished I was really full, so we sat around talking and I learnt a little Thai from the teacher's daughter.

In the afternoon we went for a drive in the countryside to visit some temples. First one was in some caves, where just one old monk lived. He was quite a character, telling stories about someone coming to steal money from the temple last night, and how he could sense that there was someone around. We met a guy that wanted to take me on a temple tour, but I politely declined! Next stop was another temple, which was in a small village. A typical wat baan! I knew this was going to be amusing when I saw the large speakers in the sala which are obviously used for playing music late in the night (I wonder if they show movies at this temple). As we approached the sala and went to wai the monk dressed in dark red robes (?!?), I also spotted a room next door where there was a large television. I could see that inside there was nice comfortable sofas on which monks were sitting watching daytime television. Quite a different life compared to The Forest Hermitage in England!

Next stop was at one of the family's houses where they grow lots of mangos and bananas. It was really pretty and I enjoyed walking around before taking a nap. In Thailand it is quite acceptable to just take a nap at anytime, just find a chair or table to lie on and get some rest. In fact it seems to be expected that you need to take a nap. Something quite alien to us English who rarely sleep during the day. Later on we had some food (tom yam hed aroi mahk mahk) before returning home. I visited my friends at the vegetarian restaurant again, where I tried a little bit of the dish of the day. By this time I really didn't want any food but politeness got the better of me! Once again the main activity of the day was eating, and once again I promise that tomorrow I will try to eat a little less — these t-shirts are getting even tighter!