Phatthalung, Thailand

It’s almost been three months that I’ve been in Thailand. I am traveling to Malaysia this weekend for a visa run. How the time has flown. It still seems like only yesterday, I was packing boxes at my house and trying to decide if I was really going to do this. Now I am living on the roof top of a four story building that overlooks the city of Hat Yai. I am really loving it here. I have been slowing establishing a little family unit. Yes, my best friend, so far, is a 63 year old Thai woman. She doubles as my Thai mother and my agent. She and I have a lot of fun together. Last night I tried to talk her out of purchasing some extremely hideous shoes. They were gray platforms with rabbit fur over the top. She bought them and proceeded to prance around the office. She makes me laugh. We go on long drives sometimes and she tells me about her life. She tells me about how she didn't want to marry anyone, that would have meant she would have to stay within the home, cooking and cleaning (it’s very different from American marriage). Instead she decided to major in English because she wanted to work with foreigners. She has been in that business for over 30 years, and she loves it. I think the foreigners are like her children. She even calls me her daughter, haha. She is one of those people that will go out of her way to help anyone, and everyone. I see her approach confused westerners on the regular. She even drove two strange German boys to immigration to help them with their visas. She would probably smack me if she knew I was writing all of this about her.. Haha.

This weekend a group of us were able to go and spend some time with Pi Toi’s family friends in a small town about 2 hours north of Hat Yai. That town was called Phatthalung (it’s pronounced something like Pat- tah- loon). The town was absolutely gorgeous. The stereotypical version of Thailand, in my mind, is Phatthalung. Cool nerd facts, it’s the smallest landlocked southern province. I have lots of new images uploaded to the snap tap. The images might look like the ocean, however all the photos are really of a huge lake. The lake is filled with pink lotus flowers, and wild water buffalo. We were able to take a wooden boat. This boat was powered by a combination of a motor and a long pole. The group of us decided it would be less hot and we could hopefully see the sunrise, if we went early in the morning. As the day was a bit overcast the sunrise was not a magnificent as we hoped, but the clouds in the sky reflected on the water and provided some great shots of the scenery. The breeze was wonderful, when the boat was going fast. I was able to sit at the very front of the boat. As much as I told myself I should share with the other English teacher, feeling the wind in my face and not looking at anything but the placid beauty in front of me made me feel like I was actually flying over the water. In the distance we could see high mountains covered in mist.

I’m back in Hat Yai now, and continuing to work on lesson plans. I am also helping a new South African friend decorate her classroom. My 30th birthday is next week.. Gah

With love,

Felicia.

Some of the water lilies from our boat cruise.