The Chronicles of Thailand (4)

Janurary 26th. I'm writing this on the van to Alunas--we're going to see Kanya, Mum's pen pal. I forgot to tell you about the Thai dancing on Tuesday. We went to this restaurant with my mother's conference-mates. It was cool.

When we first got there, I do believe it took our breath away. It was decorated as beautiful as a wat, and in front of it, a woman was carving carrots. She looked up and smiled when I took her picture. Another woman was playing a hammer dulcimer and she also looked up and smiled. I think they were used to lao wai taking their pictures! We walked past the wat sculpture and lined up to turn in our shoes. We couldn't wear shoes! Mum kept her socks on, but she allowed us to take off our socks. Ooh, I was squinching up my bare feet with delight on the carpet.

We ate open air on the ground. They had ingenious seats that were gently padded like my comfortable bed in Lone Valley on the bottom. The back was a little more padded so you could recline a bit. We ate delicious northern hill tribe food--yummy yummy fried chicken and vegetables--and watched tribal dancing and stuff. It was amazing and beautiful.

At the end, they sent up things that were a cross between hot-air balloons and paper bags. When it first went up it looked like an illuminated paper bag, and when it got high enough it looked like the brightest star you ever did see.

After that we walked out, stuffed into our hot shoes again (did I mention it's 90 degrees as a high around here?) and stepped out into the starry night. They were still sending off paper bags, and the butterfly dancer was posing for pictures. She did the smile of "another lao wai taking my picture don't i look nice" and I had to give her a thumbs up when I saw the picture in the digital.

Later. Alunas is so far away! They said about 5 hours to get there. Yeah right, it's a 7 hour drive! And of course it feels like 10 hours. Every hour feels like 10 at this point, and I've already sang a marathon of songs--I started with "One More Day" and I've just finshed by giving myself a hoarse voice. Ugh. Oh, well. I suppose it was worth it to see Kanya. When we finally got to Somlua, she was at school. So we went to her teacher's office while they went and got her. She speaks a little English, but it was good to have a translator who spoke...um...a little more than she did. She did try to ask me how old I was, and instead of "thirteen" I said "fine thank you" because I misunderstood her to say "How are you?". This caused general laughter when it was translated into Thai. I just hope she isn't consulting anyone who knows English to find out what number "fine thank you" is.

She took us to her house and we gave her a backpack full of stuff. We took a bunch of pictures, then she gave Mum a scarf, Daddy a length of cloth (used for tons of stuff by Thai men, apparently), and Susie and I a pretty pillow that her grandmother had made.

It was cool seeing Kanya, whom we've heard about for years and never met before.

Better put away the diary. Here comes the hotel!
Saro