River Cruise to see the Fireflies

Saturday continued with a River Cruise to see the Fireflies.  Blue's dad and his friend Mann rented a boat with a driver to take us out on a river cruise.  They brought all kinds of food; sticky rice with teriyaki pork, fried shrimp and cooked potatoes (especially for Phyllis).  We all piled into the boat around 6:00 and we actually put on life jackets, it was the first safety precaution we've experienced in Thailand.  It was a beautiful evening on the river.  We saw all different kinds of homes, small resorts and accommodations costing from 1000 baht to 300 baht per night ($30-10).  People were bathing, swimming and waving to us as we passed by.  The boat was interesting, like a big canoe with 2 people wide seats.  There were 10 of us in the boat including the driver.  The motor was something I had never seen, loud and with a long end that steered the boat.  It kind of reminded me of a movie I'd seen about Vietnam in the late 70's.  We were traveling along jungle like areas that were very rural and primitive.  We were experiencing the culture that seemed untouched by progress and development.  Very quiet except for the roar of the boat motor and then the sputtering when we ran into lots of vegetation in the water.  I wasn't sure we were going to make it by the sounds of the motor and wondered who would we call?  It started to get dark and we (Phyllis and I) began to wonder if we were going to stop somewhere or loop around to get back before it was completely dark.  The boat didn't seem to have any lights that we could see and there weren't any lights except for a few houses here and there.  Then the bats came out and started dive bombing the boat as we went along, this was a bit unsettling!  Just as the darkness fell we pulled up to a dock and were met by the men of the family that owned what we found out to be a coconut plantation.  It was kind of surreal since we really didn't know what we were doing there.  This seems to be a recurring theme here since we don't understand thai :)  We spent some time seeing their operation and purchasing some coconut juice, sugar and spices.  This is the time of year that they tap coconut trees much like we tap maple trees for syrup.  Its dark now and we headed back to the boat wondering about the lights.  Thankfully the boat had two little headlights and we enjoyed a "bat free" right back, stopping along the way to see the amazing light who the fireflies gave off.  It was an incredible day that we are so grateful to have experienced.  Blue and her family treated us with warm and gracious hospitality.  We would have never seen this part of thai life as tourists.  I hope we can reciprocate some day :)