What
is so great about staying in a rice-farming village in rural Northeast Thailand? Where do I begin!? How about a typical day in the life?
The roosters wake you early. It’s not really “cock-a-doodle-doo.”
It’s more an “rrrr” sound, in that same five-syllable pattern, and loud, as the
whole village community of roosters joins in. Once awake, you’ll notice the
smell of cook-fire smoke and realize that most villagers rise even earlier than the
roosters, taking advantage of the coolest part of the day. The deep, resonating
sound of the wat's gong, struck repeatedly at shorter and shorter intervals
announces the monks’ departure from the village temple to collect “alms.” Your
host family will have prepared a plate of food for you to give and,
after wrapping a sarong around your legs, you’ll kneel with them at the edge of
the street and place your offering in the monk’s alms bowl. As you stand, the morning "rush hour" passes - cows heading for the fields. 
The sun warms
everything and the noise level throughout the village rises quickly as people
cook breakfast, children prepare for school, mothers attend to babies and the day begins.
Village
life is very public. Thailand is hot all year and much of life is lived outdoors. Most houses are built on
8-foot high posts because of the monsoon season’s rains, providing a shady
place under the house to weave, gather and/or nap during the hot summer months. To
get your blood moving you walk. Villagers are everywhere, watering
their plants, preening in a mirror tacked to a tree, nursing their baby, working on
an engine, chopping up meat, negotiating with the egg-seller, biking by in
school uniform. There seems to be a constant drone of voices. With no walls
between neighbors, there is an ever on-going conversation between homes and passers-by,
including you.
You’re
waved into a home as an invitation to join a family for breakfast. In a circle,
you all sit on a bamboo platform around four or five shared plates of colorful,
for the most part unidentifiable food. Isaan food is worth a separate entry, so
just imagine the experience for now: take a small amount of sticky rice from the
beautifully hand-woven, bamboo rice basket, roll it into a bite-size ball and
dip it into one of these dishes while “conversing” with your grinning hosts
using the few words you know and a lot of hand motions and body language.
As
I write and reflect on the fact that I’ve barely begun a typical day in a
rural Isaan village, I notice that just
getting through breakfast has met my list of conditions for a meaningful travel experience: a stimulating,
challenging, and entertaining activity met with inquiry, flexibility,
open-mindedness and patience.
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