My friend Amanda and I decided to get away from the city and spend some time outdoors. We had grand plans of hiking, swimming in Erawan Waterfall, and spending the night at a fancy raft hotel on the Kwai River. However, our plans took a downward spiral. We made one mistake that set off a series of unfortunate events…
That one error was going to the wrong bus station, but being pals in postivity we carried on. We finally departed from the correct station three hours after our initial departure.
At this point, we decided to forgo booking the 5 Star river raft hotel and opted to book an accommodation near the park gates so we could hike the next day. Solid plan, right?
Wrong, because our hotel…Did. Not. Exist. Unknown to us, we happily disembarked from the very last bus out of the park into the rain and fast fading daylight.
Being two foreign woman on a dirt road in the back country of Thailand, we stuck out. A nice Thai family found us confused and soaking wet on their little dirt road. They invited us into their home where nobody spoke English.
Eventually, one of the men went next door and came back with a young woman who knew as much English as we knew Thai. She became known as Umbrella Woman.
Umbrella woman then then led us to the police station, the door was open, but the officers were all gone. Under an awning and shielded from the rain, we both thought about spending the night here. Thankfully, Umbrella Woman persisted and found, The Lady in the Red Dress.
The Lady in the Red Dress, didn’t know much English, but could say “homestay”. At this point, we could roll the dice and go with this women or sleep on a concrete table outside the police station.
We rolled the dice. But, before going to the homestay, she took us to a restaurant. I guess she knew this would be our last opportunity to eat. There we met, Restaurant Woman. Restaurant Woman spoke some English and helped to assure us that the homestay was legit. Also, her food was really good.
We piled ourselves back into The Lady in the Red Dress’ pick-up truck and headed down a dark road. Finally, we arrived at the homestay and met Air-Conditioner Woman. AC woman, because she fixed the unit when we arrived, she also drove us back to town the next day on the side cart of her motorbike.
The cabin was basic, but had a roof, bed, and a toilet, no sink. Regardless, we were very thankful and cracked open our beer to celebrate.
After sleeping 11 hours, we woke up to the sound of strange new animals. To our surprise the land surrounding the cabin was beautiful! We set off to explore this really unbeaten path and were very out of place. Children rode past on motobikes and shouted “hello” in their very best English, then laughed hysterically as they drove away. A man even gestured that he wanted to take picture of us. We obliged…
We soon retraced our steps to thank all the lovely people who helped us. After completing our gratitude journey, we waited for the bus back to town. While waiting, a man who had seen us around stopped to give us mushroom soup. People can be so kind.
Thank you to Umbrella Woman, The Lady in Red-Dress, Restaurant Woman, and AC Woman.
We wondered if we were two men, or even a man and a woman, would we have received this much kindness? I am grateful to the magical tribe of women, especially these woman who came to aid of strangers. Who fed us, gave us shelter, and made us feel safe.
Kap khun ka.
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