After two weeks and a quick visa hop over the Thailand / Cambodia border I’m back in business. The business of relaxation and 10 hour bus rides, that is.
Enjoy the photo heavy post!!
But to reach my state of Koh Chang cabin fever there was a heavy amount of digging, sweating, scratching, cooking, kayaking, and showering to get through in the latter stretch of my farm stay. It finally rained, so Kwan wasn’t lying about the mosquitos. He told me to let you all know that. I still don’t believe him.
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We ate great food, great tea, and finally got to use the pizza oven that Justin and I put our blood sweat and tears into covering with the perfect coating of concrete. For some reason unknown to anyone, Kwan purchased a block of mozzarella the size of a small child in preparation. Luckily I make a mean caprese salad and his kitchen garden overflowed with basil. My dream come true. Waste not want not.
We exchanged gifts of our past, present and future. We told stories, entertained kwans terrible jokes, and I got to crochet small reusable carriers for these two fellas.
Thank god I didn’t hike this yarn across the world for nothing.
I’d be sad for all 3 of y’all reading this if I left out the phenomenal crux of Kwans pizza oven project. Enjoy!!
(mine was the prettiest but kwans was the tastiest. Justin took one for the team as the Guinea pig…). All my months making dough in the peaceful belly kitchen paid off!!
I’m not sure what more to say about it other than I made two excellent friends, made it to the other side of kwans hard core labor exchange, and passed the dengue test. With great help from the dogs and plants and geckos of course. Didn’t see a single snake, mom.
Kwan has turned into a great friend and an even better mentor. He oozes hope and positivity and acceptance, never failing to teach a lesson whenever there’s a proper moment. Even if there isn’t a proper moment, he’ll find a chunk of wisdom to give you. It’s not often we find people this way – people who are both incredibly humble and endlessly impressive. I was so lucky to find this in both Kwan and Justin.
Though I am here to enjoy the environments around me, I am also here to learn from them and from people like Kwan. I am happy to be a student again.
My time here was short but it left me full in the heart and the head. Kwan gave me as many problems to think about as he did holes to dig. Problems may not be the right word though … he showed me aspects of environmental history in Thailand that I likely wouldn’t have learned otherwise. The problems, the struggles, the solutions, the victories, and then the meandering and complicated effects from all those steps. He also taught me my new favorite Thai phrase (albeit from a very limited pool of Thai phrases….): ไปดี มาดี.
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ไปดี มาดี (bai dee ma dee) means travel safe, and go with good intentions. But that translation doesn’t convey the full breadth of the phrase meaning.
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‘Bai dee’ could also mean something like “let’s go rock the world” (not like the tourists who give so much headache to our sweet host Kwan. Maybe in a more No Reservations edgy 2000s Travel Channel way).
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‘Ma dee’ (pronounced sort of like my name) can mean “come back with prosperity and success”. This phrase is more than just good intentions or good reward. It hopes to reiterate that you receive good karma in the form of wealth, knowledge, and experience as a response to good action wherever you go. What a beautiful message to leave someone as you part ways.
ไปดี มาดี!