Saturday, March 6 - Driving to Thaton

Saturday, March 6 - Breakfast at six and off at 6:30. We were with Dion again and explored some dirt roads winding through pine forest with occasional wild banana trees. We got some glimpses of rare birds before returning to the hotel to load our bags onto the vans and get some cookies and coffee. We had 45 minutes until we were to leave, so I dashed down the street where I had spied some small shops and took a walk around the block past little stores selling medicinal herbs, mushrooms, groceries and bought a few handicrafts.

We stopped to watch a new wat being constructed by some monks.

We took off back to the main highway leading to the infamous Golden Triangle where we’ll be in a couple of days. After two hours we turned off and reached the Kok River and the Thaton River Resort about one. This is our most basic hotel  (no internet!!)but still very nice. There is a big open air restaurant and a long winding boardwalk that leads to the cabin which overlook the river. The walkway and railings are suffering from tropical rot as is everything that isn’t highly maintained around here. We had a buffet lunch which included French fries much to RR’s delight. I had mushroom soup, curry and papaya and star fruit. We had until 3:30 for siesta so I and a few of the other women walked over to a group of tribal hill women selling handicrafts. They were all wearing elaborate headdresses and embroidered clothing. The older women looked pretty worn and thin, and had badly betel juice-stained teeth, but the younger ones said they were off to school tomorrow, were learning English and looked as if their lives might be a little easier than their parents. I looked too long and got barraged by all the women. I finally told them I'd buy five purses and pointed at five different sellers leaving some very happy and others angry…but what can you do?? Typically they all make the same crafts so its impossible to browse.

I sat on our porch watching the river and saw some young monks splashing and enjoying the water. We’re at a much lower elevation here and have been warned to expect a very hot afternoon and long day tomorrow staring off at 4!!

We assembled at 3:30 and set off for some nearby fields. The ones we went to first were full of weedy, very spiny, low acacia and were very unpleasant to walk in. We drove over the river to a garlic field and walked quite a ways seeing some hawks and starlings. The sun was setting in a brilliant orange ball because of all the smoke in the air. It looked like Los Angeles of 30 years ago before smog was controlled. We finally returned to the hotel and caught quick showers to clean up and cool off and reassembled at 7:30. The golden wat on a hill top across the river began setting off elaborate fireworks as we sat down to dinner. We had a whole fish fried, cut up and reassembled, spicy beef, noodles, fried rice, and for dessert, mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce!