last week, luke and i spent 2 days and 2 nights at a place called the floating cottages on a man made lake (they built a dam in a valley) one hour north of town. the lake is in a national park, so it is nice and quiet, unlike many other parts of thailand. there are about 15 different house boat clusters on the lake. some are long, being a series of cabins on bamboo floats, a restaurant or 2, and maybe karaoke. our place was the cabin the furthest out, and therefore the quietest. no karaoke, just reading, swimming, and hammocks. but there were some characters and some antics along the way.
we arrived at the shore and met a man named tom, who with the addition of an eye patch could be a very convincing pirate. he escorted us to our long-tailed boat that was going to take us on the 20 minute ride to the cabins. also in the boat with us was "daisy," our very own thai lady boy, who would be at our service for the weekend!
the ride is beautiful. we are surrounded by mountains and the lake has lots of nooks and crannies, because after all it was a valley before it was filled with water. the cabins are made entirely of bamboo. they are constructed of a series of floats with long, whole bamboo stalks on the bottom, boards on top, and bamboo mats on top of that. there are lots of outside places to sit, including several hammocks! the cabins are 2 separate structures. one is the outdoor kitchen, outdoor living room, and 2 enclosed bedrooms for the care taker and whoever else. we stayed in the other part that had many twin beds and one double bed. all had mosquito nets and half wall bamboo structures in between. there was a bathroom and a sink in the back, but no shower. all of the floats are connected by little wooden bridges. the place is eco-friendly and the water has been tested and is perfectly clean, although we didn't drink it. there is no running water and only a bit of electricity on the caretaker's side. basically it was a lot like camping without the fire pit, but just as cool. even though they are still burning the fields, it was only a little hazy. there was lots of fish jumping to eat bugs, which included bright red dragon flies and huge jungle cicadas.
character number one approaches.
alex, the caretaker, arrives. he is a very tan, older guy from the french speaking part switzerland. one part hippie, one part bad-ass (he was sharpening machetes to cut down more bamboo), he is a pretty nice and chill guy. he tells us that his friend is coming for a week, and is wondering why his boat is not here yet.
character number two arrives, kasse, a masseuse/health professional from holland. also an older, chill guy. he speaks german, amongst other languages, so luke talks to him in german a lot throughout the weekend.
in the quite of the lake, and our swimming/reading/lounging routine that has already begun, we can hear a jet ski approaching. alex informs us that it is kevin, the loud american, a vietnam vet. on the jet ski are characters three through five. first we have kevin, a man who is whole-heartedly still living in the 70's. next we have bubba (or whatever her actual name is), the thai wife of kevin, who is just as loud and blind in one eye. and last, but certainly not least, we have rainbow, the large and colorful macaw parrot, who rides in on the jet ski on the arm of the thai wife! truly a sight to behold. this trio came over a few different times to visit, chatting a lot. we tried to give them the hint several times by reading books and doing quiet things, but it took them quite a long time to realize that we were just chilling. multiple times we heard stories about how the last rambo movie was shot on this very lake, their condo in park city, the new jet ski and what colors they are thinking of painting it, how to tie a bowline, and that we should bbq rainbow for dinner. although we did share our gin and tonics with them, and in return they brought us fresh fish for lunch and some whiskey to share. kevin was convinced that luke and i were "newlyweds," and kept referring to us as that. here is rainbow, wings spread but apparently he does not know how to fly.
we swam about every 10 minutes, ate fish fresh out of the cabin's fish farm that were bbq-ed whole, read a lot, and played cards by candlelight while drinking red wine. not a bad life. the next morning i got my first bee sting ever. i stepped on the bugger out by the bathroom, which resulted in 2 chubby, painful red toes (he got me twice and i had to pull him out of my foot!). but i swam and kayaked it off. after all there was not a lot of walking to be done, mostly lounging and swimming.
the second night there was lots of swirly wind and lightning in the distance. we were pretty convinced it was going to storm (which it never did), so i went back into our room to put everything in the backpacks and tuck it away, since i did not trust the integrity of the bamboo leaf roof. it was dark so all i had was a flashlight. as i was tucking the bags into a corner, i noticed a rather large jungle spider on the floor. it's body was about the size of a nickel or quarter with decent sized legs. i went back out to inform luke that we had a friend, but he did not seem concerned about killing it at the moment. after all, nothing is urgent in thailand. when we finally went to bed, i suggested we search for the spider first, then search the bed and tuck the mosquito net in really well. luke starts searching with the flashlight, and as i am looking the other way, he grabs me by the arm, and says, "you didn't tell me it was that big!" turns out we had 2 jungle spiders, and i had found the baby! this one was the mothership, pretty much the size of a tarantula without the fur. so luke goes out to the tool shelf and i keep an eye on the spider. he comes back and smashed the monster with the back end of a hatchet! we also found the little innocent jungle spider that i had seen before and got that one as well. needless to say, we tucked the mosquito net really well, i did not get up to go to the bathroom in the night, and i had dreams about giant spiders. sorry that i did not get a picture, but it was an emergency situation.
i love swimming.
the next morning we left. on the way home i saw a terrifying sight - a young thai child, maybe 3-5 years old was riding in the front BASKET of a MOTORBIKE! oh amazing thailand, so safe.
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in other news, we did a cooking class the day after we came back with our friends lucy and natalie. it was delicious and we were stuffed. cooking is fun and i miss it! i will have a kitchen soon!
