Travel is grand...

... but staying at home is sweet.

For the first time in -- well, we can’t remember how long! -- we have not traveled out of the country in almost three solid months. How nice it has been! We have really enjoyed settling back in after a great home leave.

That said, we have managed a couple of weekend getaways in Thailand, thanks to our friends in the building, Joy and David. They, and their pug named Amos, have taken care of Sarawat for us when we’ve wanted to get out of Bangkok.

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove about two hours northeast of Bangkok to Kao Yai National Park. A friend had told us about a place to stay there called Kamol Farm, a small, private horse farm. The farm has a restaurant, cabins outfitted with their own bathrooms, and beautiful scenery. Butterflies filled the clean, clear air, and there was no construction noise to be heard for miles -- a welcome change from Bangkok!

We rode a horse around their practice ring (the same horse, but not at the same time) but found out their horses weren’t being ridden very much. As a result, they were a bit barn-sour and cantankerous, so we decided to pass on taking them out for a trail ride. Fortunately, there were plenty of other activities to keep us busy.

The major attraction in the region is the National Park. We had expected a nice little forest, but were amazed to find a sophisticated park with an information center, well-marked trails, campsites, food facilities, and nicely maintained scenic overlooks.


Park information boards told of elephants, exotic birds, tigers, gaur (we didn’t know either ... a water buffalo-type creature), monkeys, and – get this! – king cobras. Luckily we never saw those, but we did see some beautiful hornbills, cranes, a few monkeys, and some big lizards. Gibbons in the trees surrounded us on our hikes with their musical, haunting calls.

We were also joined on our hikes by some unwanted hitchhikers – leeches. All one can really say about leeches is that even if you know they are harmless, they still give you the heebie jeebies and you find yourself running around like a little girl screaming, “Pull it off! Pull it off!”

(Note: Patrick never ran around like a little girl screaming. He may have given the occasional manly shudder.)



There are also vineyards in the area. The wine is not fantastic, but it is nice to see some Thai entrepreneurs making a real effort to produce there. We visited one vineyard for a tasting and an amazing dinner at their restaurant.

Over Columbus Day weekend, we drove about one hour southwest to a town called Samut Songkhram, which is famous for its fireflies. Yes, lightning bugs are a big deal in this place. The Rough Guide calls it a “tiny estuarine province” that sits along the Mae Khlong river, crisscrossed with a network of 300 canals. Our accommodation there was a “home-stay” on a coconut farm. The family has a few small, Thai-style cabins (on stilts!) on their grounds and offers its visitors boat trips to see the local sights.

They even showed us how to collect palm sugar from the coconut trees and make candies from it. (Just the knowledge you need when you’re on a deserted tropical island....)



We took a traditional Thai rowboat out in the afternoon and saw traditional Thai homes, traditional Thai temples, and traditional Thai fruit farms (pomelo, coconuts, guavas, lychees) on the banks.


Then we rowed right down Main Street (er, Canal) of a town called Amphawa. Fascinating old buildings were built right on the canal, which was the site of a vibrant floating market. This is how most of Thailand used to be, before the Thais paved over all of their canals and started using cars instead of boats.

The fireflies are the night attraction. This species of firefly likes lamphu trees. Floating close to the bank in the canal after dark, one can easily recognize these trees. They’re absolutely full of fireflies, who pulse their tiny lights quickly -- like Christmas lights! What’s weirder is that they are all synchronized with each other. Imagine 100-200 tiny fairy lights in a tree, blinking on and off all at the same time. What fun to be sitting in a small wooden rowboat on a canal in Thailand, watching fireflies!

The other claim to fame of Samut Songkhram is as the birthplace of Eng and Chang, the original Siamese twins. That was exciting to learn, as we only recently discovered that they called Wilkesboro, NC home for a number of years (but we don’t think they ever attended Merlefest) and eventually settled on a farm in White Plains, NC (in the northwest of the state, near Mount Airy, Andy Griffith’s hometown). We felt it our duty as North Carolinians in Thailand to go visit the small memorial erected to the brothers.

Other than these two side-trips, we have enjoyed spending our weekends at home with Sarawat, enjoying our favorite places (a lot of them having to do with food) in Bangkok, and hanging out with friends. November will feature a lot more travel – Patrick will go to Hanoi for a week and Kathmandu for a week-and-a-half for work ... and we’re off to Cambodia for Thanksgiving!