Mementos

---

I learn so much more about Thai culture on the intercity bus than any one other place in the country. With so many snippets of Thai conversation flowing through my ears, the life happening on the side of the road, the incessant playing of either Thai pop music videos or Thai dance entertainment shows, and the time to process things as I bump along, I should really take the local bus more often.

With the exception of times I am very loaded down with goods or have traveled with Orphanage staff, this is my preferred means of travel here…unless I need to get to Bangkok. :-)

I love the life outside my windows…the dogs in this country all know how to sit in the basket of a motocyc for the ride, cats perch behind their owners for the trip, NO vehicle I have ever been in has a working speedometer…except for my motocyc for some farung reason.

Where else but in the bus can Miles get the opportunity to be handed a young parrot for two hours with noone supervising him? In Thailand we can wander by a Chinese Buddhist temple in the centre of Phuket Town to be invited to watch a drive-in movie on a sheet flung over the temple gates….I have never seen more motocycs parked in one place with their owners all perched on top! Or, would some stranger offer to carry my 50 pound package of carved wood I just HAD to buy for my brother…four blocks to my hotel.

One of my favorite experiences is standing for the King’s anthem. Stopping in the middle of the street for the minute of respect at 8am, or in the movie theatres prior to the film. My friend, Buffalo Joe in Phuket, always has a huge smile and a hug for Marrin and Miles anytime we happen to be in town…I love his infectious graciousness, and the refusal to let me pay him for any transportation needs we may have. He swears to me one day I will relent and let him take Miles to the go-cart track for a round in the cars….maybe in five years.

I’ve had some proud moments here. Times I realized my kids are cool….when the monk remembered Malie’s greeting of respect on the street days before I attended temple the first time, or when half the faces in Takua Pa city buses all hang out the window to greet Miles on the motocyc…everyone knows him and remembers…his hair is a giveaway.

I have warm and caring friends here, Bom (whose beautiful baby boy was born yesterday), and to whom I am now “Naa Nok”; Kwang who is a lifelong soul mate, Na Bai…who teases me incessantly, Joo, Rotjana…so many others.

………………………………………..

The view from my early morning coffee perch, the doorpost of my new back porch offers the most peaceful feeling. The spirit house in the foreground, the warblers diving and twisting in the early mist against a backdrop of mountainside covered in untouched jungle canopy. The smell of incense and warm earth mixed with the 6am sounds of children preparing for breakfast and chasing each other on the cool lawn of the orphanage, roosters forgetting its past dawn. This is my life here. It lives in a treasured part of my heart. I am so fortunate to be able to experience and share this with my babies.

---