Lisa's Eve and Birthday!

01.02.2012

Lisa's Eve (a term I have been using to describe the day before my birthday since I've been a wee one [go ahead and chide me all you like]) was a day of pure travel, and a rainy one at that!

Our original plan was for Fon's family to drive us a couple hours through the forests outside of Ranong to the city of Sarat Thani (mentioned in a previous post) where we'd take a long day train back up to Nakhon Pathom. 

The following pictures are from a lunch stop we made to a little restaurant in the middle of the jungle!

Fon created an interesting head piece out of, what I think is, a towel.

Some kind of drink with jelly bits in it served in, you guessed it, a little bag.

A view just beside the bathrooms

A seating area of the restaurant

This route we had taken, however, turned out not to be a possible option.  An hour and a half into our drive we discovered that the mountain pass we were taking to Sarat Thani was closed due to road flooding from extensive rainfall all that day and the night prior.  Our host family, who were planning a trip to Bangkok the next day, was kind enough to change their schedule and make the drive that day.  We had a full carload consisting of 8 people and a dog making a 14 hour journey north through a day and an evening of torrential rain!

Delicious Chinese style buns we got on the way up north that night.  My favorite kind is called "salapao sai wuan", and has sweet Thai custard inside :D

01.03.2012

Happy 27th birthday to me! 

That night we stopped driving around midnight to get a hotel.  The next morning we stopped for some brekky and finished off the last couple hours of the drive.

Sticky rice cooked in bamboo

The old fart with some Thai iced tea or "cha chuk"

After an eventful 4 days in Ranong we were dropped off by our lovely host family back in Nakhon Pathom.  Felt great to be home!

There were two things on my birthday to-do list.  The first of which was to visit the temple and shrines around the Pra Pathom Chedi in our town and make merit.

The temple was bustling!

Chinese style statue.

Stairs through a little cavern led to another shrine

It was a beautiful evening

This Chedi is the tallest Buddhist monument in Thailand

Monk's donation bowels lined up upside down

HUGE lying down Buddha that took up half the room.

Wish I had a panorama option on my camera!

The statue on the right is covered in gold leaf.  Applying gold to a statue is a common part of prayer.

I believe there are lots of different ways to make merit.  One way is to donate money and then take one of these carnation flower bowls of your choosing.

Man, he looks relaxed.

I chose this little guy.

You then hold the offering and, while kneeling, make a prayer.  I basically made a wish.  When you are done you put the flowers on the table in front of the statue, and then apply the gold leaf to the other statue. 

This is quite a difficult medium to deal with.  I ended up with gold flakes all over my hands which then got on...

... my face!

You can also distribute coins into different monk's donation bowls.  It made a great sound when people did this! 

My birthday prayer!

A female monk at the temple

The history of the Chedi

We head back outside and peruse the Chedi market to kill some time while I was excitedly waiting for my 2nd birthday activity.

Music and traditional dancing

A vat of I have no idea.

Then I was tickled pink to hear that what we had been waiting for just arrived.  My good friends Jeff Boehm and Ashley Doubleday landed in Nakhom Pathom to visit!!!!!

Kathleen, Toon and a couple of his friends from university arrive and I am surprised with a baby cake and trick candles.  Thanks guys!  <3  I am not sure but I think Thai trick candles are especially tricky. 

Toon, Path, Kathleen and Nob

We then went back to the Chedi market for eats and treats.

Students from Silpakorn University were going around asking for donations.  For some reason they wanted a picture with us.

Toon is really good at ordering for us when we want to try something new!

Derp.  It's been a long day!

 We happen upon the bug stand, yet again.  As a 27 year-old, it was my duty to try eating a cockroach.  Andy and Kathleen were enthusiastically along for the ride!

This sucker was huge.

The underbelly

Kathleen dove right in, but made it clear from the get-go that she was not a fan.

Kathleen managed to swallow a large chunk of the midsection within a few minutes.  I macked a leg (with a lot of masticating effort) and some of the juicy innards.  Andy chomped off the head which he had to chew for about an entire minute before he was ready for peristalsis.  We all discovered that the exoskeleton was simply inedible (a good evolutionary feature for the roach, right?)  But we all gave it a good shot - especially Kathleen!

Ice cream was needed afterward to rid the taste from our pallets.  Kathleen asked me to take this photo of her.  I think she wanted evidence of her looking either intensely triumphant or triumphantly intense... you decide.

Happened upon another stage.  More girls dancing, surprise surprise!