Operation Origin part 2, prelude part 2

8.12.2014

They see me rollin' they hatin'

Link to video.

Today we were supposed to go to the waterfall again. It was pouring rain so we desided to sleep in. I think we finally woke up at 1pm. We dragged our asses to the resort's café, didn't feel like exploring other options because of the rain. We ordered rice and chicken, for Milla it was too spicy,  at least she woke up! Like always, she put her chilis on my plate.

When we were eating Ben came to say hello, he was astonished how we could sleep so late, even tho we are so young. We made plans to meet him later, it was still raining so the waterfall would have to wait, we don't want to go jumping on wet stones. We decided to finally write the blog now that we had time for it.

Le Pes' swing, so beautiful!

We wrote the blog for a few hours and went to smoke cigarettes, the rain had stopped. It was good to finally get the blog foward again, we're so late on it! Sorry for that! Because the sky looked clear we decided to go for a ride and take some pictures.

When we were about to leave the resort, Noi and Plub greet us happily. "Good evening!" Even they had heard of our late sleep... They asked if we wanted to have dinner with them again at 7pm. It was Ben's last night here so we would have a big dinner before he leaves. The menu was mainly seafood, this is Khanom after all.

We took a right hand turn from the bigger junction and headed to the closest mountain, the road gave us a beatuiful view of the mountain when we drove along it's side. Beautiful countryside houses with some cows and rubber tree plantations and long rows of some kind of palmtrees. The view was nice but we had to race the sun as it was setting behind the mountains.

The bliss of the country living.

We had to race the sun to our next photo spot.

We wanted to use the last rays of sun to capture the scene from a little bridge near the resort, the river and the pier with it's ships. The riverside shacks and the night market which they put up every night.
It gets dark a little later than in the northern Thailand, but not any less quicker, when it gets dark, it really gets dark!

The riverside.

Downtown Khanom

When we arrived back to the resort the grill was already cooking. After a quick shower we joined the others at the shelter that had just been finished today. Eating on the floor, real Thai style! It was atmosperical moment to eat there, all that yummy food! Slow cooked curry fish, rolled in banana leafs, shrimps, so soft and tasty. Mussels for the first time, they were also tasty, but the texture and taste is hard to describe. Damn good anyways! Red and green fish sauce, minched pork and tom yam goong with fresh assorted seafood. Noodles dyed with pumpkin, carrots, flowers and cucumber. With the noodles they also served two different coconut based sauces. Squid, not the rubbery one that you might normally get, but silky smooth and soft, so fresh, so perfectly cooked!

Noi also told us that Japanese believe squid's head has a potency to lower cholesterol. Who knows, they know many things. Oh! The servings didn't end here, we also had sweet corn, crabs, some balls called "hopeless", funny ones with a funny taste. They tasted kinda like cucumber, corn, raw potato and swede. We didn't catch their origins tho.

Naturally dyed noodles.

Curry fish in banana leaf.

There we were, devouring all this food. You wouldn't believe how much food there were (that's why we took pictures, HA!). You can't really get more fresher seafood than the ones in Khanom. Even Ben told us that he doesn't eat seafood anywhere else. The seadood that we have had before, were twice the price, chewy and not even remotely as fresh as in here.

Squid, crabs, shrimps...

Fine dining at it's best!

After the dinner we asked if they wanted to taste real Finnish pot coffee, made on open fire. They've never seen such thing so they were all exited, even the construction workers came to see this miracle. We took a lot of pictures and laughed, the caffeine did it's magic. With coffee we had some cookies topped with merinque and nompareil. Very good!

Funny but good cookies!

Real finnish "nokipannukahvia"

Caffeine  happiness!

We talked for a while with Ben and asked him for a ride to Nakhon Si Thammarat, because that was our original plan and the reason we came here. Noi and Plub heard our conversation and got exited. Noi asked what we wanted to do when we got there. We just wanted to see the place where Milla was found from 20 years ago, we showed them approximate location of the place where we figured it might have been. After this the converstaion went bonkers. There was Thai and English and Thanglish and all of the abowe. I managed to hear something about Ben driving us there and us coming back with a bus, but it would take us two days. After this I was lost too.

When the converstion started to make sense again, Noi told us that we could get there with his brother tomorrow. They would try to tag along if possible. If that doesn't work, we would leave the day after tomorrow, because we would never get to the military base on our own and we would have to leave with nothing. "Is this ok?", noi asked.

At this part Milla's heart started racing...

Noi continued, she had adopted a son from Nakhon Si Thammarat, he was only one year younger than Milla and when they were trying to find his parents, he was placed at this only children's home there. They still had the files and pictures of him there... Milla was blown over by all this, a change to really get in to the military base, the children's home and a temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

They promised to be our translators, wheter they got along or not. "You know nothing changes who you are, no matter what." said Plub. Milla was speechelss so I answered for her: "I think it would only make the circle close for Milla." Something Milla told me she would've said her self, if she could.

"When we came here I din't hope much. I've always thinked that if I need to know something, I will. Just that we made it this far means a lot and it boosts the feeling that nothing in life is in vain. Even tho sometimes things are an irony of fate, life brings good things in your way. It tells me to be humble and to listen. Not everything is in black and white.

At this moment I don't know what to think of all these little pieces of my life that brought me here. I'm afraid to hope too much from tomorrow. All I can try to be is sort of ready.
I told Tuukka that if I met my mother, it would blow my mind, it would show that nothing in life is impossible. On the other hand I don't even wish for it, you have to draw a line somewhere.

If I always knew what was coming, I wouldn't be here to write this confusing text. If there's something miraculous, it is this life... I'm afraid to say, or wish, or be afraid or wait for anything else but tomorrow. It's time to stop and go to bed."

-Milla

9.12.2014

In the morning  we woke up at 8:30am because today Ben was leaving. We made plans to eat breakfast together. We were so tired but at 9:30 we had already ordered our coffees. We met with Noi at the café.and she told us that she had called the children's home and talked with someone there. Just before ten Ben came to the café, he had overslept his alarm.

Half eaten Le Pes breakfast, too good to take before pic! The woffles are amazing!

We had breakfast together and talked. The weather was nice and the morning fix of coffee tasted even better than usual. Noi had some small bun like balls in a bag and asked if we wanted to taste them. When Milla took one in her hand she felt how sticky they were. They were topped with sesame seeds and oil. When you bite it, it feels sticky and sweet. Probably for the suryp. It was also somewhat salty for the black beans inside. They were pretty good.

Dem buns!

After the coffees we decided to taste the icy drink we saw all the Thais drinking. The list of tastes was a long one! It's made of flavored suryps and ice amongst other things. We ordered apple-cinnamon and damn that was refreshing! This is the only place in Khanom that serve these drinks and the café is very popular here. You can see police officers, businessmen and teenagers often drinking these here.

During the breakfast we had talked what would be the best plan to start looking for Milla's origins. They suggested that Milla would go to a fortune-teller. Out of curiosity Milla said yes. Down here when you have problems or questions or don't know what to decide, people often go to a fortune-teller to clear their mind. Plub also told that she often goes to this same fortune-teller, because her words have always came true. The prices for this start from 300TBH (8€) and up to 500TBH (13,20€), for 300TBH she will tell you about your past and for 400TBH and 500TBH she will tell about the future, with 500TBH more of course.

The fortune-teller's "office" was a carage down the main road to Khanom's downtown. The place also sold small shrine statues, incenses and other religious stuff. Behind the table sat a middle-aged smiling lady with three decks of cards in front of her. We were told that she's one of the best and trusted fortune-tellers in this area. On the table there was a bowl where you put the money, because you have to be the last one to touch it before the fortune telling.

At the fortune-tellers office.

First Milla had to suffle the decks, they had a lot of fun when Milla tried to suffle them like playing cards, they were sticky cardbord cards and barely fit in Milla's hands. After this we were ready to start. Noi and her daughter translated the telling to us. After the fortune telling Milla was confused. The lady started with telling things from Milla's past and things that we had already spoken about. The tellings about Milla's future were good, lots of money and good things to come. The fortune-teller said Milla's mother is still alive and she has a younger sister that looks like her. They live in a province that has both mountains and the sea and they are poor. What comes to Milla's father, the fortune teller told us that we don't want to meet him, he's selfish and has a lot of women. She also told us to watch out for slippery stones. We might not be in this 100%, but the lady cleared Milla's mind and her words might have truth in them.

The telling cards.

I didn't take a telling, we're in this together anyway and I'm more of an "bring it on and lets see" -kinda guy. We head back to the hotel where was a friend of Noi's. An older gentleman who offered me some authentic mountain grown tobacco. He gave me a leather bag and told me I could roll one. My skills are pretty rusty, but Milla said she could roll me one. When Milla opened the bag, she realised she wouldn't be able to. The paper was made from bark of an young palm tree and definately didn't have adhesive in it. So the gentleman rolled me one. The taste was smooth and gentle, truly an authentic taste. Learn more about this in our video! Milla didn't want one, she said this can be our "man time".

Due to the late time (12:00), we would have to skip going to Nakhon Si Thammarat today, but we had plenty of time to go to the waterfalls we were planning before...