The Fruit Fair in Rayong

Irony of Ironies! The day we plan to visit the All You Can Eat Fruit Fair in Rayong is the morning that Montezuma's legacy walloped me with a vengeance. 

Just the evening before, our family was showered with food, whiskey and attention.  (Well, the children had very little whiskey…)  We were visiting Steve’s Peace Corp friend, Adjan Sriprapa.   Adjan (Teacher) Sriprapa was Steve’s friend and mentor 22 years ago.  Now, she is a school vice principal.  Also, Michel and Tiger, Steve’s friends came up from Bangkok, with their much doted upon son (also known as their dog), Mackie.

We all converged on a busy seafood restaurant, where we were ushered into the air conditioned, private, V.I.P. room, crowded with carousing, karaoke singing, school teachers and administrators.  The superintendent of the area schools ate along with us.  The entire shellfish feast, was entirely sponsored by the school’s headmaster.  The headmaster also paid for us to stay that evening in a deluxe, two bedroom resort on the sea! All this from a stranger whom we’d only just met!

We ate and ate:  fried fish with mango salad, crab legs, squid, garlicky shrimp, fish balls (must have been a very big fish!) and seafood stew.  (This may have been my tummy’s downfall, or perhaps it was the third whiskey.)   Then we headed back to the resort with the headmaster and Adjan Sriprapa and devoured some gooey, coconut and rice flour, jellied treats.

 By morning, my insides were roiling, but I was embarrassed to appear to be a less than gung-ho guest.  So, I put on a brave face as we headed to the Fruit Fair. 

 Even in my pained haze, I could appreciate the beauty of the area.  Adjan Sriprapa lives just outside of Rayong, in Bahn Kai.  Near her home, signs for the Fruit Fair promised a carnival atmosphere.  The county fair mood was supported by the cute, painted tram that pulled up beside us in the parking lot.

We boarded the tram and toured the ample gardens, fecund with papayas, rambutin, mango, pineapple, bananas, mangostein and a host of fruits without English names.  Twenty minutes along a bumpy road, and the tram stopped at an open air patio.  There, pregnant tables spilled over with all manner of tropical fruits, tempting us with an endless buffet included in our tickets. 

 But my stomach was being such a spoilsport!  It was absolutely unwilling to cooperate.  While my family and friends attacked the fruitful banquet with gusto, I sat alone at a picnic table, nursing a Gatorade with an azithromycin chaser.   I felt like miserable Tantalus, shoulder deep in water, tortured by thirst, and unable to drink.

 After more bouncy touring on the tram, we stopped at another improvised restaurant, where plates overflowed with som-tom.   The chef had prepared a mild version of the green papaya salad for the twins, so I ate a bite or two of theirs.  Usually, this was one of my favorite Thai dishes, but today, I could barely pick at it.

As we left the Fruit Fair, the fog began to lift for me.  I wished we could have gone back and done it all again!

 Fortunately, by the next morning, I was mostly recovered, and a good thing, too.   Breakfast and lunch were once again feasts provided by out hosts, Adjan Sriprapa and her husband, Pi Biec.  And their generosity did not end there.   They showered us with gifts:  candy and clothes for the kids, a dressy pakama for Steve, and two lovely sarongs for me.  We hugged goodbye, hoping to return again, and caught a lift back to Bangkok with Tiger, Michel, and Mackie; their sweet, pampered poodle.

By Ilana Long