Crickets and Frogs and Rice-- Oh my!

We sat at the lunch table in our homestay in Bahn Pasat munching on deep fried crickets.  I preferred them to the steamed, salted beetles that the kids favored.  Both, frankly, were delicious and were cultivated right here in a hutch in Gayo's backyard. 

We planned to stay in this small village for three days, so the kids got started right away washing their laundry in tubs and hanging it on the line out back.  Finally, we all had successful, relatively tidy experiences on the squat toilet.  Yay!

I "helped"Gayo cook up some more lunch to add to our buggy feast.  Fried cucumbers, tomatoes and sausages were served over rice that Gayo and her husband had planted, nurtured and picked themselves.Steve translated into Thai when I asked if I could help pick some rice, too.  She said I could watch, because it is very hard work.

Everybody works very hard here in rural Thailand.  Gayo's husband, Pong, works as a school custodian and hour away.  He works 10 hours a day, six days a week.  The village host families also get some extra income from a trickle of adventurous tourist and Thai school groups who stay in the homes here.

After peeling some lychee and rambutin fruit for dessert,  we wandered toward the archeological site in the village center.  There, we saw the remains of bodies buried during the Bronze Age!  more than 60 skeletons have been excavated here, along with the jewelry and pottery that accompanied their ancient souls. 

Gayo had suggested that we try to find the frog man.  So, we asked around until we found him.  Jahrat was happy to see us and eager to show off his farm.

We meandered behind concrete hutches to find the tadpole pools, the juvenile frogs, and then the adult frogs in a netted pond.  He explained how he breeds and sells these frogs that were nearly as large as my head!

We strolled with our host around trees bearing papaya, bananas, mangoes until we came to a low, concrete building that was emitting a high pitched whirring sound.  As we pulled aside the netted door, we saw the room was filled with trenches of chirping, squirming beetles.

The beetles swarmed over cardboard egg containers, and when Jahrat banged the cartons together, the bugs poured out by the load into a bucket used for collecting.  Jaraht says he gets about a dollar a pound for them at market.  Te kids bravely put their hands in the buckets, giggling as the bugs crawled all over their hands.  As one began to march up Benji's shirt sleeve, he changed his tune and shouted, "Get it off!  Get it off!"

Aswe walked out, Jahrat pointed out his barber's chair.  he is truly a jack of all trades.  In his former profession, he gave a haircut to the king of Khatar!

We stopped by the school and chatted in English with some giggly and embarrassed school children.   Then Steve took off on the back of Pong's motorcycle to fetch some fresh fish from market for dinner. We enjoyed a bounteous feast of homegrown dishes.  near the end of the meal, Marina pulled the whole bowl of crickets in front of her and popped them in her mouth like peanuts.  ""These are yummy!" she declared.

To top off our evening, each of us bathed, pouring buckets of cool water over our bodies, scooped from a giant plastic barrel.  Refreshing!

Early our second morning in Bahn Prasat, we took a bus to the ancient ruins of Pi Mai, and archeological site which is said to have been the design inspiration for Angkor Wat.  We wandered along in the nearly deserted ruing\s until we were too hot and tired to continue.  as we left, student groups began to arrive, oohing and aahing over our cute kids and crowding around to take photos with them.

It was a few minutes after lunch when I realized my camera was missing and my bag unzipped!  Panicky, I raced back over the ground we had covered.  No one had seen my camera.  I felt dejected to have lost all of the photos I had taken, especially those of the elephant adventure.  Steve went to talk to a police officer, while I dug deep into the depths of my backpack one more time.  My hand graze a leather, rectangular case.  I pulled it out, disbelieving.  My camera!  It had been there all along!  I retraced my steps to tell all the helpful Thai people whom I had pestered that I had found it after all!

Then, we went back to our home stay to eat some more bugs.  As Gayo said, "You can't eat just one!"  The cricket appetizer was followed by yet another multi-course  feast which included specialties of the area such as Korat noodles (which Steve devoured) and green papaya salad.

In the morning, after Gayo took an abundance of photos on her phone of our children, we fondly hugged her goodbye, hoping to return one day!