My view in the morning as I left the house
I'm not sure what to expect today. I'm going to a floating market with the family next door. I've met the two parents, they've served me dinner and breakfast a fair few times, the dad is a well respected man amongst the teachers and on an evening I've played badminton with their kids. Though neither of them go to the school, they play there most nights.
The teachers have been very protective of me my entire time here, with certain people who have offered me invites I've been told not to because they are not safe people or people to be trusted. They have helped arrange this day away so I'm looking forward to it and don't feel any anxiety at all.
At six o'clock I head on over. There is a minibus outside the house, and the family are getting ready. We leave about fifteen minutes later, but are only on the road for about ten minutes before we stop and pull up down a side road. Some of the people get out. We wait around for maybe half an hour. A lot of people arrive, all family members. There are a mix of people, cousins, brothers, sisters and kids. We head out and there are no more stops until we arrive at the market.
The whole place was stunning. There were a variety of temples all over. They taught me how to pray, and what to do when I went into the temples, what order to do things, where to get the gold leaves, how to hold incense so I didn't burn my hands... and technically I didn't. Though I did manage to burn my hair as I bowed!
After the temples we went to the market. We walked through a normal, covered market and the suddenly found ourselves at the river. The boats were beautiful, and there were so many of them. We bought some fruit, I must have tried some eight or nine types that I'd never even seen before. Most of it was very nice. We explored some more, and then stopped and had some breakfast. They bought me everything and refused to let me pay for anything.
We all met up again and took a boat trip. It left the market and we went down various side rivers that led to traditional stilted houses with people who lived on the river.
Once the river trip was over we explored the grounds nearby. One of the mothers bought me a new t-shirt because she was buying her daughters some.
The final place we visited was a cultural heritage museum. There were many parts where pictures were not allowed, so I only have a few from inside.
Everyone jumping into the car, we headed for a place to eat a late lunch / early dinner. It was a sea food restaurant. Words are not enough to describe it, only the pictures will do it justice.
Sadly I lost some of that crab... or rather it was stolen... by some of those monkeys! They had staff whose job it was to stop the monkeys getting at the food, but they would climb on the roof and jump down, run across the table, or under them, and grab what they could before running off again.
After food we visited a few more temples before the long drive home. I was finally able to get some photo's of how people travel on the roads out there.
We stopped and let people out at their houses. I was so tired, it had been a brilliant day and I had so much fun, but I couldn't be more tired! We drove straight past the school and past the neighbours house, even though all the other family members were gone. We continued up the road for about half a mile before stopping outside a house with a large party going on.
"Nick! Party!"
"What?"
"You, go party!"
"Erm... okay..."
I got out the minibus and walked through the gates. There was maybe 40 people in the front of the this house, a BBQ was on the go, music was playing, it was a great atmosphere. I didn't recognise anyone. Everyone seemed to know who I was though...
All will be explained in the next post!
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