Chanthanburi: The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Seafood, and Night Boats.

One of the greatest experiences I have shared with my wife was a mission trip we took together to Romania, while we were still dating. On one night during our stay in Craiova we had the privilege to attend a weekly college Bible study, at the church we were working with. The Bible study was good, but what was memorable was the time we spent together, hanging out and laughing after our Bibles were closed. Sunday night is a similar night.

After church in Hnonghnea Dui, Gift, Dift, John Mark, and myself make the three-hour drive to Chanthanburi, a coastal province. Once we arrive we go to a church and meet the Dechauy family. The family is one that Dui and Gift disciple over skype. They are our hosts for the next two days and are excited that we have come to spend the time with them. We rearrange cars and I jump into an Isuzu SUV. My driver is a Thai woman who introduces herself and when I have difficulty pronouncing her name she tells me to call her “Sky.” Our first stop is to an old Catholic church. The church is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and the current location is one hundred years old and is the largest Catholic cathedral in Thailand. While the structure itself is impressive, the cathedral’s largest tourist attraction is their statue of the Virgin Mary. The three-foot statue stands on display in the front of the church so all who visit can see it and the thousands of jewels that cover it’s surface. Gold, diamonds, sapphires, and rubies drape the impressive statue bringing it’s net worth to an impressive three million dollars. I spend time photographing the statue and many other impressive things in the cathedral.

The next stop is a seafood restaurant where we are served some of Thailand’s best coast foods. I am seated next to a girl who prefers us to call her by the English translation of her name, Apple. Apple speaks the best English of anyone in her family, a result of the Rosetta Stone program she has been using. While we eat the delicious food I come close to having my fill when more food is delivered to the table. When I ask why there is more food I am told that what I had eaten was the first course and that we still had three more courses. I lightly eat my way through the next two courses, but am unsure how I will manage the final. After some time of waiting I learn that the final course was canceled due to the fact that everyone at the table was full and could eat no more.

Following dinner we drive to the hotel to change cloths for our night boat ride to see fire flies (Dui kept referring to them as, “light bugs”). We leave the hotel and go to the home of the Dechauy family, where we all climb into the back of a pickup truck. The truck is older and has a tall cage built around the bed, partially out of old refrigerator coils. We old on the railing of the cage to keep our balance and pull away from the house. After driving a few kilometers we turn off the road and begin driving down a dirt road in the jungle. Fifteen minutes into our jungle trek we disembark from the truck and walk for another fifteen minutes to a river. At the bank of the river are two boats; both look old. After scooping water out of the bottom of one I am assured it is safe and told to climb in. I get in the boat along with John Mark, Gift, Apple, Sky, and our boat’s captain. Fully loaded, the edge of our boat hovers less than an inch above the water. Should the boat turn just a bit to the left or right, it would take on water, oh and there is a small hole in the bottom of our boat. As the others climb into the second I watch as wood on the back of the boat splits. We shove off, scared to death that our feet have touched dry land for the last time. After paddling down the river a short distance and looking at a few fire flies we determine that if we want to live through he night and not swim in the Thai equivalent of the Ganges, it would be best if we turned around and get off of the boat. Finally back on dry land we returned to the Dechuay house and spend time drinking sodas, eating popcorn and embellishing our near death experience. After a few hours Dui, Gift, Dift, John Mark and I head to the hotel and get some rest we will need for the next day.



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