November 3, 2018
The boat ride was a surprise. I thought we would just take photos of the small floating market, taste the local delicacies and leave. I was very pleased when we got on a small paddle boat. I didn’t get nervous. We were on a canal and it was a very smooth ride.
Olive was bringing us to a coconut plantation producing coco sugar.
It was yippee all the way. The only downer was the searing hot sun. The colorful hats provided by the tour guide helped cover our heads but not our legs, arms and bodies. I could feel the heat piercing through my cotton dress.
The water, although brown in color, was generally clean. I did see some wrapper or plastic stuck on the banks but no floating garbage on the canal.
I wished Edmund and Nyke were with us to experience this simple touristic activity.
Residential house along the canal
Almost every house has what Thais call spirit house. Tingin ko mas mapamahiin (superstitious) pa sila kesa sa ating mga Pilipino.
Oo nga pala, it never crossed my mind that there could be anaconda or an alligator here. Bite me and I’ll bite you back to get even.
We entered a small ingenuous gate made of empty plastic bottles tied together by a string to signal the owner that there are visitors. They make some kalembang sounds, yun na yung door bell.
Naku kung maganda lang sana ang camera ko, etong picture pwedeng pang National Geographic.
We reached a coconut plantation where saps are collected to make sugar.
Ang init dito. I was hoping they would give us ice cold coconut juice.
A long bamboo pole stands at every tree for climbing. I wanted to climb all the way to the top but the problem would be how to come down. Baka dumaus-os ako pababa (slide down) or mahulog ako, plank, bali ang tadyang.
This visit to a coconut plantation gave me an idea. We have a few coconut trees at the farm and we have lots of bamboo poles for harvesting. I will put a bamboo ladder similar to what Thais use to climb a coconut tree. I can climb the ladder and harvest my own buko.
We watched how two old women cooked the coco sugar using the simplest tools—sandok, tabo, baskets, uling.
This woman has been doing this thing for more than 50 years. Yung likod nya naka kuba na. Ang sipag nya.
They made us taste this hardened coco sugar. Anong lasa? Eh di syempre matamis.
There was a stack of pre-wrapped sugar in a pail. Our tour guide said if we wanted to help the women, we could take some and give a donation. I did. I got one pack and gave Baht 20.
This whole process of patiently collecting sap from the coconut heart, boiling and filtering them doesn’t interest the young people anymore according to Olive. It’s considered big hard work and fewer people are doing it nowadays. Eventually, this industry will vanish.
