So much for a quiet Sunday at the house. By 1:30pm I had received an email saying my flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok had been changed to a later time. What! This would mean I’d miss my flight to Bali, no that’s not on. I could see this was another opportunity to call upon the Lord’s peace and trust Him to work things out. The email provided a link for me to accept the later time or not. I did not want a later flight! I then followed all the links and rebooked for a better time with a different airline. Of course I was asked to pay again. This new flight would reach Bangkok the day before my Bali flight. It arrived early afternoon giving me time to get to a hotel, one closer to the Sunarnabhumi Airport as this new flight arrived at the Don Muang airport over two-three hours’ drive away. I then had to contact the airline I’d previously booked with to cancel my ticket with them. This was done via the AI chat bot (which I don’t like). I eventually, after being disconnected once, was able to confirm my previous flight was cancelled and I would receive my refund within 45 days, yes 45 DAYS! I’ll be back in Australia then. Oh well, as long as it’s refunded I’m happy. During the disconnection, my booking for the flight I wanted timed out and I’m sure I clicked on ‘accept the later change’ for the 27th by mistake. Eeeekkk! Praise God, when I checked later both flights with this airline had been cancelled. All this online stuff is scary. Later that day I received a message that the refund would be back in my account in 3-4 days. Well that’s a lot better. Thanks Lord.
With my new flight booked, I also needed to book an overnight stay. I decided I wanted to be close to my departure airport, Sunarnabhumi, so I didn’t have to rush even though my flight didn’t leave till midday. My next challenge was to get from one airport to the other without having to pay the huge taxi fee that I’d paid last time. I looked into the free shuttle bus but it seems this is only for passengers who were in transit. This was very disappointing. Still I’ll give it a go when I arrive and trust the Lord will lead me. And that was my quiet Sunday afternoon.
Sometimes, in the late afternoon/evenings, while listening to my Duolingo Indonesian, the rain is so heavy I have to wear my earphones to hear the lessons. Most days it rains heavily in the afternoon, evenings which is great when we are doing something in the morning. It’s not always as predictable but it does help when you want to plan your day. Like washing days. I still like to be around just in case there’s a shower or two.
I would love to collect the rain water but not sure about how clean the roof is and without guttering the rain just pours off the edge of the roof. In most of Asia, it is not wise to drink the tap water unless you boil or filter it. This leads to many people buying one-use-plastic bottles which I’m so against. At the house they have larger 2lt bottles which are reusable plus larger bottles of 20lt. I prefer buying these and have been ordering them a couple of times a month. When they arrive I ask Yay Ja to help me lift it onto the stand, this saves injuring both our backs. I can then fill the smaller bottles and my own personal bottle to take with me when I go out.
Monday Carolyn had invited Temjai and me to go sightseeing. She asked where we wanted to go and we both decided we’d like to see Doi Chaang, as Tamjai had heard that there they grew the best coffee. I was excited to try and possibly buy a packet. We drove to Carolyn’s home and from here Dema drove us and the family through Chiang Rai towards the mountains. It took us just over an hour on winding mountainous roads twisting their way through the lower rice paddies up into the wooded areas where among other things coffee, avocado and macadamia nuts are grown. Dema and I were hanging out for a coffee as we had held off having one before leaving the house. Our first stop we pulled into was a popular café with a sweeping view of the valley. Here we put in our orders and sat sipping coffee overlooking of the sweeping valleys and mountains. The contrast in temperature here in the mountains in comparison to the plains was delightful; with a cool breeze and temperatures around 23⁰F. It was so different to the lowlands of 32⁰F and high humidity. This would be a perfect spot to escape the Perth winter, except that I’d have to find something I could get involved in.
From here we took a rough track off the main road into a forested area which also grew macadamia trees. Stopping at a parking area we went on foot along rough stony paving into the forest. This path led to a pond with large bright coloured Koi. We then turned back and walking along the road a little further we hoped to find a lookout point. We eventually gave up, unsure it was actually there and walked back to the car and on to another café for lunch. I was rather overwhelmed by the choice on the menu and suggested they do the ordering as we were going to have a few plates of food to share among us. It was my and Tamjai’s first time trying Akah food, it was delicious. We had a plate of vine greens, smoked dried pork, veggie omelette and a gourd soup with wild rice.
Before coming up the mountain, we had heard about free coffee sampling and prayed we could experience this but after searching the net we were unable to find any in this area. The café/restaurant we ate lunch at had packets of coffee beans and dragon’s blood tea for sale. I inquired about the coffee beans and was shown their own brand which we were given a sample of (the answer to our free coffee tasting – thank you Lord). It was a strong bitter coffee taste which was quite pleasant. While talking to the Akah owner we found out she is also a Christian. This was a good incentive for me to help support the local community as well as buy some coffee beans.
From here we went to a famous coffee producing business which also had their own café. Here Dema and I had another coffee. This one would not have passed the Aussie coffee snob test. It was very weak and not hot although I didn’t mind as I don’t like hot coffee and as it was my second coffee, not including the strong taste test, I preferred it a bit weaker. I also chatted with the barista and showed him, online, the coffee equipment that I bring with me so I can have a good coffee wherever I am.
Heading back down the mountain and into Chiang Rai, we stopped at the Big C for me to stock up with some breakfast things and a stop for Dama to collect something before dropping Carolyn and me at the night market near their home. I bought some pork satay for the following day’s lunch and walked back to the house for my ride back with Temjai. Here I prepared my lesson for the following day.
Tuesday, I once again walked to the school at 10:15am. On the way I was startled when I saw a snake on my side of the road. Praise the Lord it was dead but I still gave it a wide berth, just in case. This was my second teaching with the raucous boys. This time we were revising body parts as most of these boys already knew them. I started with showing flash cards and asking what part of the body it was. Then to their surprise I asked them to sing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”. Two boys were mucking around so I asked them to come to the front and sing. Then one boy really didn’t want to join in so I asked him also to the front and tried to get them to all sing together. What an effort! The first two boys got the hang of it so I asked them to sit back down. The other boy really didn’t want to join and in the end I asked him to leave the classroom and sit outside hoping that Dema would talk to him but he wasn’t there. I was quite surprised at the boy’s behaviour as Thai children are usually very polite and respectful of their teachers and elders. From then on the remaining boys were better behaved but the one outside disappeared till the end of class. The rest of the class had fun playing a memory game; turning sets of pairs over to see if they could get a matching pair. I had put the special needs child into one of the groups and showed him how to play. He was delighted to join in and had a lot of fun with the other boys helping. I would love to see this boy in a special needs school but I’m told the parents want him to be in a normal school. This is very disappointing as he is such a lovely child and would really benefit from special attention. He is unable to speak but is quite bright and I’m sure if someone took the time to teach him how to sign he would be able to communicate.
Speaking to Dema after the class I asked if I had done the right thing sending the boy out of the room. He said yes if he wasn’t interacting or participating. He also said he would talk to the class before I come next week.
That afternoon at the house, I went through all the email addresses associated with my blog mailing list. I sent an email to all the email addresses I didn’t recognise and to those I hadn’t heard from for a while, asking them if they would like to remain on the mailing list. I didn’t hear back from many as I think their email addresses had changed, but it was lovely to hear from others. Some old friends I hadn’t heard from for years, still wanting to hear all about the adventures the Lord is taking me on. Thank you to all of you who replied; it was lovely hearing from all of you.
The rest of the afternoon I decided to unwind with some cooking. I wanted to use the cooking bananas that Carolyn had given me after the Bible study group. With some of the brown sugar I’d bought from BigC plus a packet of coconut cream and a pinch of salt, I cooked up the frozen bananas. It’s a very simple dessert and delicious. Once done I shared some with Temjai.
Temjai keeps herself busy with Thai studies, Saturday English classes for three groups plus, most mornings and evenings she is out cutting the grass with the whipper snipper. Cutting the grass is a continual job as in this weather the grass grows quickly plus before she bought a new battery, she had two very old batteries which ran out quickly. The grassed area is very large; perfect for where the children play, but once she has finished one area the other area needs cutting again.
Before leaving Bangkok for Mae Sot I had met a woman called Milkky. She had planned to meet me in Chiang Rai and had contacted me during my first week here. She was coming up to Chiang Rai on Tuesday the 9th so we planned a coffee catch up on the Wednesday. I looked on Google Maps and found a cafe not too far out of the city and on a road that I’d been on before. It was only a 15min drive for me so I was confident I’d be ok finding it and driving there. Then on the day she messaged me on the LINE app to say she was unwell so rescheduled for the following week. LINE is more commonly used here in Asia. I had previously downloaded it many years ago when I was Cambodia. We set the place, time and day as per previous arrangement but for the following week, once again she cancelled. Mind you she did ask if I could run her coffee shop which she is opening in her new Chiang Rai office. Let’s see what comes of our first coffee together, whenever that might be!
Still wanting to go into the city that morning, instead of meeting up with her, I plucked up the courage to drive in alone. I left around 9:45am stopping first at the bank to ask about the TAGTHAi card. What a disappointment. Firstly I could only get a TAGTHAi at the Chiang Mai and Bangkok international airport and secondly I needed cash to put money on the card and to later top it up. I couldn’t transfer money from my Australian card or my WISE account! What’s the point of that, I was trying to avoid cash, I might as well just use cash with the vendors. This was so disappointing, I wrote up a scathing review on TripAdvisor to warn others and hopefully give the Thai tourism authorities some ideas on how to improve their system.
From here I called in to the Bandu Markets where I bought a few Thai desserts, pomelo and of course durian before driving further out of town to do a U turn, stopping at a post office to post my card to Granny back at Mae Sot. I thought she might appreciate a proper, ‘in the post’ letter. I also looked for some postcards but there were none to be seen anywhere! I’m not sure if people use postcards these days. My last stop was at BigC mainly as I needed a toilet stop but I also wanted to buy some NamTok (Thai beef salad) for lunch. It was on the menu but was no longer being made. With all these setbacks I headed home to make my own lunch and hopefully a more restful time at the house…… if you can call dripping with sweat in the humidity restful! Sometimes while using my tablet, it gets so hot I have to put it into the refrigerator to cool down. On that note, I’ll sign off till next time.
Photos: 1. Siam Tulip – Curcuma alismatifolia 2. Coffee with a view 3. Our walk beside the pond 4. Bamboo forest 5. Lunch 6. Panoramic view
Prayer & Praise Points:
I continue to praise the Lord for making it possible for me to be here in Thailand. I have learnt so much especially with all the opportunities that arise for me to trust Him more.
He continues to enable and helped me overcome my fear of driving in the unknown, teaching and other challenges that arise. I certainly need His patience, guidance and leading in all these areas.
I’m grateful for the times I have been able to practice Thai with the local Thai people. Please pray for an opportunity that has opened up for me to teach English to some adults during the day.
Please continue to pray for the Karen families here in Thailand who have applied for visas and permanent residency with their families abroad, especially Matt’s family in Mae Sot. Pray also that their situation in Thailand, while they wait, will improve and that they will be able to provide for their families.
Continue to pray for a smooth transaction of Gayle’s house papers.
Continue to pray for world peace and countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause. Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused. Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live with despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.
Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers. Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.