Surprise! Surprise!

I’m in for a surprise; the thing about staying with Gan’s parent is that they have planned your itinerary without you knowing it. I woke up around 8am, funny how in the northern Thailand breakfast is Lunch, Lunch is breakfast. We ate rice in the morning but noodles for lunch. Nonetheless, food is delicious and I’m grateful for being vegetarian. Por promise to show me how to hula when we saw the granny hula hooping when making Som Tam on the news yeaterday. So before breakfast, we did some hula hooping, I’m shocked when I saw Por having a big belly but hula hooping non-stop, then Mae join in after finished cooking Phat Say Yew. They indeed are Mr & Mrs Incredible. They easily put me to shame simply with 20 times in a minute which they can do more than that. It seems that Por talent didn’t stop there. He picked up a Chinese instrument, Er-hu and start playing melodious tune. A bit sad but lovely tunes, really bring me to another era, it’s like enjoying a concert. What a morning to begin with!

We took a long drive to Mae Ping National Park, What I didn’t expected is to see waterfall (Nam Tok), flowing ceaselessly from the mountain. The water is clear, cool and refreshing; I almost want to dip myself into the river. The bamboo that surrounded the whole area looks carefree and the breeze makes me want to take a nap at this tiny paradise. The trek all the way up to the waterfall makes us hungry so we took out the Phat Say Yew, Mae cooked this morning and places it on the wooden table, and it feels like having picnic except no mat. I really adore Mae as she is so domestic, she makes sure plates, forks and spoon are catered, and even chili powder and seasoning for the Phat Say Yew is brought along.

After lunch, we went to the Ping River, Kaeng Koh view which Mae said, Mai Suay (No pretty) as there is not much water in the river. The floating houses are not high enough. This river when it’s deep enough can travel all the way to Chiang Mai. Also, weather is hot and Por jokingly say it’s like Microwave.

Surprise comes when we took another long drive to Por’s mango plantation. It’s huge and I think this is the first time I get so close to Mango tree after eating Som Tam so many times. Por told me he enjoy managing the farm on his own even though at times, with the help of his 2 dogs, I can see from his eyes that if his sons can help along it’ll be great. He asked if I’m willing to stay and help jokingly and I said, maybe a few years later, 2560, but I also said one day, Maybe Gan, Tak and me together we can find some time to help him clear the forest for more mango trees.

I plucked a few mangos and guess what Mae will teach me how to make Som Tam for dinner later…

More pictures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=575247633&aid=279217