In July of 2005, I had my first opportunity to go visit the family home of Kanittha up in the province of Sakhon Nakorn, up in the northeast of Thailand, in the Issarn region. Rather than traveling twelve hours by bus, we decided to fly there.
My wife's family are all very humble farmers, who by sheer hardwork have been able to raise themselves up from complete poverty to a respectable status in their village. Money is still very hard for them, but they earn enough to keep a cozy little home.
Here's a shot of the view right in front of their home — rice fields. When we went up to visit, I went with the intention to ask Kanittha's parents formally for her hand in marriage, and to offer up a partial dowry to her family.
What might have been a simple quiet exchange, became a big event with half the village coming to the house and with the village headman present to witness our engagement.
This was taken the morning after the impromptu engagement ceremony. It's a tradition here to tie a strand of homespun cotton around the wrists as a way to ward off harm. The belief is that it ties your spirit to your body, so that should something happen it won't decided to depart at an inopportune moment. From that moment on, I stopped referring to Kanittha as "my girlfriend", and she became "my fiancée.
Shopping at the local wet market with Kanittha's older sister, Aey. Everything up there is so fresh and inexpensive. I spent most of the time up there just lounging around and taking naps all the time.
Here's Kanittha on the bridge that spans a stream fed by a reservoir near their home. The house with the blue roof is the home of Kanittha's family. That time of the year, there's nothing but lush greenery all over the place.
Green rice fields, skies heavy with rain and breezes that calmed the soul. That's what it was like spending time up country in Sakhon Nakorn. Now because I was sleeping too much, Kanittha's family thought I was bored and they decided to take me to go visit the local tourist spots.
Kanittha and I got around on one of the family's motorcycles, while her three nephews and only niece followed close by on the other motorcycle. The 10-year old nephew driving the other motorcycle is Toy.
Here they all are at the reservoir, from left to right — Chet, Toy, Kanittha, Ay and her niece, Toon. No idea who the dog is.
A view of the reservoir.
Here's a sunset shot taken with one of the Buddha statues surrounding the temple near their village, Wat Danmahlen, which literally translates as "temple on dancing horse rock.
This modest temple was built on a huge solid rock, which bears the imprints of what appears to be random patterns of hoof prints. Local folklore says that horses used to dance upon this rock. No one can explain why, but that doesn't seem to be important at all.
Here we are at the airport of Udon Thani, about an hour and a half drive from Kanittha's village in the neighboring province of Sakhon Nakorn. This was taken just before taking the flight back to Bangkok. We're a bit tired from all the driving around, but I was totally rejuvinated from that peaceful break up country.
