Down on the Coconut Farm

This past weekend after getting into the car with a bunch of Thai's and one western friend I expected to see a floating market and some fire flies. Little did I know I was in for a much larger adventure of driving up the coast. I fell asleep in the car...it was hot and I had woken up for the sunset earlier. To my surprise when I woke up I was getting out of the car at a Church???? Now a church is a common scene in almost every country since the spread of colonializim, but this is Thailand "land of the free," never been colonized. Yet here I was standing in front of a church. The Thai's were very excited to show us the church which was admittdlely very beautiful and right on the water. It was kind of a funny scene though when I had to take off my shoes to enter the church and then the Thai's left my friend and I to pray! We politely declined and said we should probably get on our way...there are many other things to see in Thailand.

After a little more driving and a lot more asking directions (there is no planning ahead here) I noticed on either sides there were rows of coconut trees and clear irrigation streams cut. Next thing I know we arrive at a house and are told this is the house of a former student at my school. We shuffled into the wooden house and greeted the owners in our few words of polite Thai we know. In the back of the house was a canal and then....you guessed rows of coconut trees! Here we were on the coconut farm. We were allowed to use the boat (a typical Thai style) which I was admittedly skeptical at first but come on when else am I going to be on a coconut farm, so I jumped in. Actually no no I very cautiously eased my way into the rickety boat hoping I would not end up in the canal that is filled with....well that's actually it I have no idea what it was filled with! So it was a serene scene paddling up the canal....apparently my Thai friends were also not coconut farm people because they could barely get the boat to move in a straight line. But we had some laughs and a good time down on the coconut farm.