Fish Farm+ - Friday, September 9, 2011

Ok first things first. THE SCARY PET IS MISSING. Nong Not and I walk into the house after dinner and she looks in her little cut open container with fruit that she made for the creature…except there was no insect. I asked if he died (hopeful) and she said no. So I said ‘yu ti ni????’ which means where is it?!?! And she shrugged and smiled. Nong Not is no ordinary 12-year-old girl. Then she starts looking all over. Paw comes in next and asks where the creature is. And Nong Not says something to him in Thai and he starts looking too! I am concerned. I feel like if it were really missing they would be more alarmed but what do I know? I’m thinking they are just messing with me (which they love to do) but maybe that’s just being hopeful. Wish me luck. Now my door is SERIOUSLY staying shut.

Now that that is out of my system…let me tell you about my fish farm excursion! We headed off to Mae Tang Fish Farm at 7:45am. Once we got there, we split into two groups. We had two different activities and we would switch activities after lunch.

For our first activity, we walked up to a very large (swimming pool sized), MUDDY, pond looking thing full of small (hand sized) fish. There were many of these ponds throughout the farm. We were told to climb down into the muddy water and we immediately sunk in. 16 of us were lined up across one side of the pond with our backs facing the other side. We then all grabbed onto part of a very large net and started walking together. All of a sudden, fish were flying everywhere!! We were catching them in this net as we walked across the pond. The fish were jumping/flopping up at as ALL over. They were hitting our legs, arms, butts, FACES…everything. That was the scariest part. We could feel them everywhere and we were submerged in water up to our shoulders because we had to bend down to drag the net on the floor of the pond. We were all getting stuck in the mud and it was a workout to try to walk while pulling this huge net of fish! Once we finally got to the other end we had to get the fish out! Luckily the workers helped us out a lot so it wasn’t too bad. However, we had to repeat this 3 more times to make sure we got ALL the fish. The first time was definitely the worst.

After this activity, we had lunch! I’m sure you can guess what we had…fish. Not a fan of fish and I’m all about eating locally but I was WAY too close to my food. That is one thing about food in Thailand. It’s very hard for me to eat meat because there is just not a lot of separation between me and the pig (or fish, in this case) that I am eating. When walking through the markets, there are LIVE fish, eels, etc. and there are full pig heads (with ears and snout), etc. And sometimes I even go to the market with my family to get the food we will later have for dinner. So, there is a good chance I could become a vegetarian after this trip. I have kind of lost taste for meat. Anyways, back to lunch… even though I was kind of uncomfortable eating the fish…it was pretty good and the fish sauces was spicy AND sweet and delicious.

After lunch was our second activity!! This activity was more fun than the first and we definitely got personal with the fish. We walked to another set of “ponds” These ones had all kinds of netting/pipes, which were used as barriers. We then waded into this water, which was about chest deep and headed over to one of the “pens” of fish. One of the farmers showed us how to tell whether the fish was male or female. We were to catch the fish with a net and then grab the fish to see its’ sex. If it was male, we had to open its’ mouth with our fingers and see if it had little yellow eggs! If it did, we had to keep the mouth open and shake the eggs into a net and then throw the fish over a barrier into another “pen”. This may sound easy (or maybe not…) but it isn’t! Shockingly, the fish aren’t cooperative and don’t enjoy being grabbed and pulled out of water. They flop a lot and by flop, I mean WHIP their bodies. And their fins are sharp so you have to make sure you grab them the right way. And SOMETIMES you accidently lose the fish and it gets out of the pen and into the water we were in. So…it was a challenge but SO FUN! We all got really into it! We probably actually made more work for these farmers but they were really amused by us so I think it was worth it for them. I have TONS of pictures. Benefits of the waterproof camera!

So, after our second activity we changed into clean, dry clothes and headed home. I was disgusting and we got home pretty late. Paw was going to take me straight to Meh’s house for dinner but I told him I desperately needed a shower. He eventually agreed and took me home. Apparently, I took to long again because Meh showed up on the motorcycle to take me home.

I am not sure if I have explained this yet but my family is definitely protective over me. Usually when I need to shower before dinner (after Cross-fit or if I get home early enough), Paw brings me home on the motorcycle and then he heads to Meh’s house and I bike over 15 minutes later when I am showered and dressed. However, 15 minutes is apparently enough time to worry them. While biking over, I tend to run into Meh and sometimes Nong Not on Meh’s bicycle heading to Paw’s house. At first I thought they had forgotten something but after enough times, I realized that they were coming to check on me. Now that I think of it, it’s probably a good idea…we do have many creepy creatures in the house! Anyway, I definitely find it kind of funny and endearing but I am DEFINITELY looking forward to some freedom in the apartments. I can’t wait to check out Chiang Mai life AND nightlife!! Thai beer is GOOOOD…or so I hear.

Well, it is Friday night and I am blogging and about to study some Thai…who is this program turning me into?? I have a feeling I may go back to my normal self a LITTLE bit when we live in apartments in the city. Maybe stay up past 10pm…haha