Chai & Fern

Yet again, I have another PoGo story. This time, we were in Sukatai to visit the ruins of the ancient city. We had arrived by bus in the early evening. As most bus stations, people were there hoping to sell goods or services to the new arrivals. We were greeted by a lady who had a room for rent at her guest house. We accepted. We were transported by a gentleman named Chai. His English was quite good.

The next morning, we ate at the guest house and were ready to make our way to the ancient city. Chai was hanging out with his tuk tuk. He offered us a price for the day that would include a tour of the ancient city and transportation. He even included transportation to the airport which we needed to get to later on in the day. We came to an agreement so we loaded up all of our belongings into his tuk tuk.

He asked if we minded his daugher, Fern, could tag along. We didn’t mind at all. As we soon found out, she was a little darling who made our day. She is about 8 years old.

As we made our way to the ancient city, Chai answered all our questions about Sukatai and such. Fern spoke very little English. The ride was about half an hour to the ancient city.

Upon arrival, we jumped out of the tuk tuk to go and explore the ruins. Fern quickly took the lead. It turns out she was our guide for the day. Chai would stay at the tuk tuk and watch our bags while Fern showed us around. She had obviously been there many times. She spoke little English so she would point at objects and tell my wife, Trish,  what it was in Thai. Trish loved this because she is trying to learn the language. Many times, I was falling behind because I was shooting pictures. Fern would soon wave me on. Fern would also takes pictures of Trish with Trish’s camera. There were many sweet moments regarding Trish and Fern.

After several hours of checking out the ruins of the ancient city, it was time for us to go for lunch. We asked Chai for a suggestion of where to eat. He brought us to his favourite restaurant. The place was quite busy. Fern seemed at home there though. She helped the waitress gather us silver ware and such. It was like she worked as a waitress part time after her guide job! Soooo sweet.

After lunch, we needed to head to the air port. Fern was riding on the back of the tuk tuk. She fell asleep leaning against her father. Only children in Thailand can do this as they are on scooters soon after they are born. It was a long day for the little girl. She woke up groggy when arrived to the beautiful Sukatai airport. Before we said our good bye’s, I pulled out the PoGo to give Chai and Fern a little gift.