Today was the Chinese Qingming Festival. It is a time when people go outside and enjoy the greenery springtime and tend to graves of departed ones. The festival is celebrated by Chinese people yearly. Cat's mom and grandma are both Chinese.
We had to get up at 3:30 am to go to Kanchanaburi with Cat's mom and grandma. Kanchanaburi is a town located west of Thailand and about 129 km from Bangkok. Before we left at 4:00 am, Cat took a very long shower. Since she was in the bathroom for so long, I didn't get to wash my hair or use the toilet. My hair reacts to humidity. The weather here is always hot and my hair is always frizzy and curly. I haven't had any good hair day since I've been in Thailand.
Cat's mom hired a private van and driver to take us. It took two hours to get to Kanchanaburi. I admired Cat's mom a lot. She always encourage and make it a requirement that I participate in every event. I am clueless most of the time but thanks to Cat and her patience, she guides me through everything.
At the grave site, I had to do everything they did which was waied, burned paper money, and offered food to grandma's ancestors.
While Cat and I waited for her mom and grandma to finish, I suddenly got a stomach ache. I had to use the bathroom immediately but we were in the middle of nowhere, and there was none in sight. Last night I ate some very spicy instant noodles for dinner. Every time I eat spicy food, I get a stomach ache the next day. They were telling me to hold on a little longer but I couldn't. I had to go and the woods was my only option. Cat stay guarded while I went a few feet from her. It felt so good to let all that nasty things out of my stomach! When I came back to where her mom and grandma were, her mom said, "You look thin!"
On the way back home, we stopped to have lunch at a restaurant on the side of the road. I had a bowl of spicy noodle again!
After we got home, around two in the afternoon, I called Bat. She's also a lesbian that I met online but much older than us. She is 45 years old. I talked to her online once in a while, and I promised her that when I go to Thailand, I would visit her. I was supposed to meet her today but since Cat was tired from our morning trip, I had to cancel the meeting. Bat said she wants to take Cat and I on a dinner cruise along the Chao Phraya river.
We walked to her mom's work after we ate dinner. It was only a few steps down the alley. We usually sit with her mom and watch Thai lakorns on TV. But tonight we just sat there and reminisced on our long journey.