Monday, March 28, 2005

Ubon Family: Mar25

I was going to leave Ubon early Friday Morning to go to Ayutthaya, the ancient Capitol of Thailand, for the weekend. But small Oi insisted that I wait til the afternoon and have her husband take me in his Travel bus. He does a regular 12 hour trip from Ubon to Bangkok several times a week. So we all hung out at Oi's place and ate again. By this time these people had accepted me as one of the family so they all made me take special pictures with each of them.

Little Oi.

Big Oi. Or Oi Vay, as I call her.

The infamous Gai. Now you have to get past Joy and you have to get past me if you want to meet her!

I asked what the thing is all about that Pond keeps doing with his fingers over his face. Joy says it's his sign to mean that he's intelligent. Which he is by the way, very very intelligent. When they all saw how well Pond and I got along Oi said I should take Pond home to Canada and make him my son. What do you think Mom and Mliss? There's that spare room at Mom's place and we could all learn Thai...

It was impossible to have a picture taken where Pond didn't run in at the last moment...which was just fine with me.

This is small Oi's daughter.

All these women drive motorcycles and that's how they get around town. I never managed to get a shot of them on their bikes though. I nick named them the 'Thai Angels.

When it was time to go to the bus I went to say goodbye to the ladies but they all just motioned me to get on Joy's bike and we all headed to the station together.
Joy and Gai waited in the bus with me and small Oi got me some water for my trip.
So just imagine. I was sent off in a bus that doesn't actually go to Ayutthaya, with a man I have only met a few minutes before, who doesn't speak any English, who is now going to see to it that I get to where I'm going.

As the bus was leaving I yelled out to Joy, "He knows I'm going to Ayutthaya right?". She yelled back: "No time to talk. Just you go." The door closed and away I went.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You have made extraordinary friends and you are one trusting soul.
About Pond--he's a beautiful kid and another grandchild would be welcome but leave him with your sister--she loves child care and I'm done.
J.P.