Cars and buses were
driving very close to us on this part of the road west of Phitsanilok. Keith decided to tie a blue shirt onto a
stick. Then with his stick and rag we
walked along, him feeling safer, but I felt shy a little! When we walked many people looked at us with
strange expressions on their face. They
thought we waiting for the bus or maybe that we had no money to buy
tickets.
One couple stopped
their car. Both of them were very nice
and friendly. “Where are you going Kha?” (that is a polite greeting like sir or
ma’am) Sukhothai I answered!
They said ,”Oh dear
that far from here please get on the car we going the same place”, then they
asked me more questions. “Why do you
have to walk? Are you not tired? Why are
you doing this?”
I replied, “We will
walk all the way across Thailand. This trip is really spectacular.
They had more
questions like “where do you sleep? Do
you bathe in the rivers? What do you
eat?” And the most difficult question
for me to answer, “Why are you walking?
You will get hot and tired.” I
tried to explain we were doing this because nobody had ever done it before. I said “kah we meet nice people like you and
get to know more about Thailand.” The
nice couple offered me a ride one more time before driving away.
As they drove away I
felt even more shy (sic embarrassed) about what Keith and I are doing. But I
told him I would do this, so I must do it.
This ends Onanong’s
comments for now.
The day went by quickly.
It was a day without any really memorable events. We walked, we rested and then we walked
again. Some days are like that, even on a
great adventure.
As my watch moved toward 3:00 p.m. we arrived at the
outskirts of Sukhothai. Once we passed the
City sign and had officially entered the city, Onanong flagged a songthaew
(pick up truck taxi). We pushed our
packs into the back on the floor between the bench seats. Weary from the 18 kilometers (10 ½ miles) we
had walked that day we stepped into the back of the songthaew to gratefully
ride the next 2 kilometers to the TR Guesthouse where we planned to stay for
the next couple of nights.
The Songthaew dropped us a few blocks from the guesthouse,
leaving us a short walk before we would get to dump the packs for few days.
A clean brightly decorated bakery was temptingly situated
just where I clambered from the back of the truck taxi. There was a display case filled with various
cakes and pastries. After a long hot day
of walking a piece of cake sounded heavenly.
I left my backpack lying at the door of the bakery while I purchased a
full double layer chocolate and vanilla cake.
Meanwhile Onanong waited patiently, not once reminding me that I was
still supposed to be on a healthy diet plan.
At the guesthouse, once inside our room I placed the cake on
a table. Since we planned to stay in
Sukhothai 4 or 5 days, I emptied my backpack so I could launder
everything. Then after a shower, shave
and a second nice hot shower I went out with Onanong to find some dinner.
After dinner we returned to the room. I had big plans to eat
that cake we had bought earlier. Sitting
down to a small table in the room I pulled out a folding knife I carry. It is
spring loaded to open and has a very sharp 7” blade I use for peeling fruit or
cutting cake.
As I made the first slice, a swarm of large red ants burst
from the cut in the cake. I jumped back,
cursed and then finished cutting that piece of cake. By then the ants were swarming all over the
tabletop. I quickly moved my laptop off
to one side of the table.
With the large slice of cake removed, we could see ant
tunnels throughout the cake. Apparently
these industrious ants had found an entrance to the bakery display case and in
just a few hours had set up house in my cake.
I closed the box on the cake and ants and folded it inside a
plastic bag. By then it was late. I was tired, Onanong was tired so we just
left the cake, thinking the ants were trapped inside the bag.
I slept in until sunrise the next morning. As the sky grew bright enough for me to see
easily in the room, I climbed from bed and opened the laptop. The Macbook Pro powered up while I brushed my
teeth. Then sipping a cup of hot tea I
opened my email program and began downloading mail from the night before, which
time is daytime in the USA and Britain.
I noticed a few of those red ants crawling near the laptop
and brushed them to the floor. As I
waited for the email to download the laptop screen began to get strange colors
and missing spots. Clearly something was
wrong. I jammed a USB memory stick into
a port and as fast as possible began transferring my most important files,
those I knew were not backed up on my backup drive.
As I finished and ejected the small memory stick my laptop
screen was turning some awful blue and orange colors one pixel at a time. I just sat and watched the computer turn to
garbage. Finally I turned it off . Then knowing what I would find I picked the
dead thing up and began shaking it.
Perhaps 50 or 100 red ants swarmed out and ran in circles on the table
top.
I was too disgusted with myself to bother the ants. I ignored them as they swarmed around the
table searching for their next portable home.
I looked at Onanong, shrugged my shoulders, said “let’s go change this
for a cake with no ants”. I grabbed the
ant riddled cake and headed for the door.
Onanong was quiet, waiting for me to explode in anger. But how can you blame ants for searching out
all those warm crumbs of food that had accumulated in the spaces on the
keyboard between the keys.
There’s probably more than one lesson in this story, but I
never bothered to try and figure out what I should have learned from the
incident. I found new cake without
ants. I eventually bought a new
laptop. I still eat too many sandwiches
and salads while I write on this laptop.
I do try to put it away in the carry bag at night when I’m traveling.
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